Yes there is more. If you didn’t get enough from the Amanita Mania or the August Round up, you have this last chance to satisfy your fungi fanaticism.
Like the August post, this one has a mix of familiars and new species that I’ve never really noticed or photographed before. Some are done in natural light and some with the LED panel depending on how things looked and what I wanted for a final image. So…onto the fungi!
This is a first –
They really were that purple, peeps! I was flabbergasted. In the past I’ve shot a few purple mushrooms, but most were in the Cortinarius family and these are not. They are a type of toothed fungus and are normally found in a mottled white, tan and gray mix. I did find some that had that coloring, but oh, these guys were irresistible. They grow very quickly and often envelop small twigs and mosses or other things that get in their way. Check out the debris on the top – some of it looks sunken in like it was on a pillow-top mattress. My newest ID guide places it in a new genus – Phelodon. Mushroom taxonomy changes almost minute-by-minute due to DNA analysis.
This is an old favorite, but could be either Hygrocybe conica or Hygrocybe punicea, they are so hard to tell apart. Either way it called to me from the path so I had to shoot it before it got trampled. It’s about 3/4 of an inch high and I used the LED panel to get some contour and dimension in this tiny wonder. I used about 12 shots for a stack.
OMG this next scene is just so perfect. I can’t believe it’s real. Several feet away I was shooting another mushroom and saw this out of the corner of my eye. It was a very near thing that I didn’t cancel the operation I was in the middle of to dash over there. But I didn’t even though that particular scene isn’t worth working. This one though. Oh my. It was up on an old stump that was covered in moss and a long enough distance from the peat moss bog nearby that it would be nicely blurred. Wow. I should have taken a photo of the stupid tripod tricks I had to do in order to get this. Worth it though.
Unsure of an ID. It could be Pluteus chrysophlebius or Mycena leaiana because the margin of the cap can become lined, but usually they aren’t this delicate. Maybe Hygrocybe cantharellus, but I didn’t check to see if the gills are decurrent. Cute as anything though. A 22-image stack.
And now for something completely different.
These dark beauties were fruiting on a tree that came down in the side yard a couple of years ago. It has now become a mushroom paradise with these and some others colonizing it. What is interesting is the relationship Entoloma abortivum has with Armillaria mushrooms. When the two meet, the resulting organism changes entirely and becomes what is known as Shrimp of the Woods (google it) or an Aborted Entoloma. It’s still known as the former, but it’s now known that it isn’t the Entoloma that stopped growing because of the Armillaria, but the other way around. The honey mushrooms stop developing normally and really so does the Entoloma. The result is a complete new, and edible, mushroom. While some varieties honey mushrooms are considered choice edibles, I don’t believe any variety of Entoloma is except for when they colonize Armilliaria. Now that’s putting the fun in fungi.
Speaking of edible –
Oh so delicious. The classic golden chanterelle sitting pretty in the moss and pine needles. Another 20 or so image stack and yes it and its compatriots were collected and devoured. By me.
This one was in the process of being devoured, but so cute that I shot it anyway. It is probably Russula emetica, but it’s hard to tell the bright red Russulas apart. It’s only about 1 inch high and really bright. Usually these grow on the ground, but this one was up on a log so I got the LED panel in there to light it and I really like what that did with the stipe even though it isn’t in crisp focus.
This one is a little bit of a mystery. It’s on a log in the backyard and is only about 1 inch wide, but it’s very firm to the touch and I think it will be a perennial instead of dying back each year. These types of fungi add tissue on the edge that contains fresh spores for every season and by doing so grow larger every year. Eight books and the internet and I still have no idea what this really is – possibly a Cerrena unicolor or Oxiporus populinus, but who knows? It’s a tough little thing though and I love the stuff hanging down from the underside. This is a shot of about 20 images also lit with the LED panel.
Another mystery since it’s somewhat bedraggled and dried, but I couldn’t resist how it was growing out of this crack in a dead birch tree. I had to do a lot of work to get the background to be less distracting, but I like the final result.
Well here we are at the end. As of this writing it’s still mushroom season albeit pretty late. There still could be some out there waiting for me when I’m out chasing foliage. Gotta keep my eyes on the ground, too.
Wonderful shots. I’m impressed how you know what they are. My sister found some very small purple ones and I went to the woods to see them, but her directions were ‘they’re on one of the tree roots on the right up from the pond.’ Needless to say there were a lot of tree roots!
Thanks so much! I don’t always get an ID, even with 8 books and the internet, but I’m getting better. Lately I’ve started using a couple of apps on the iPad and will decide which to keep. One is Mushroom specific, but sometimes gives different IDs of the same exact specimen when given different pictures. But it sometimes gives me a place to start and I can eliminate from there.
So funny you mention mushroom directions! I was talking to another photographer one day and he did the same thing and I walked right by them even when I was looking out for them. Oh well. Not like I didn’t have plenty to keep me busy!
Mushrooms being here today, gone tomorrow doesn’t help!