Forgot the fungi?

Fuggetaboudit. I remembered. Here’s a round up of what I found –

aka Shiny Cinnamon Polypore is one of the most striking mushrooms and distinctive among polypores in that it has a stem and doesn’t grow like a shelf on logs or stumps. I really like how the pine needles have been encapsulated by the expanding cap. There are two flies in this shot, both of which moved during my focus bracketing session, but I could fix them in place.

And feast your eyes (and only your eyes) on this beauty –

An undoubtedly highly toxic Amanita mushroom is on a stump which is something I don’t recall ever seeing. Every one I’ve photographed has been on the ground. The partial veil was such a stunner that I had to stop and do a big stack for this beauty. In processing I softened the background just a hair since it was pretty busy back there and I couldn’t do anything about it in the field.

And look at this little cutie (one of many to come) –

I couldn’t resist this tiny thing coming up on a dead tree. Oddly it was not in a big group the way this species is often found. It’s a 40-ish image stack.

These really are that colorful –

A 44 image stack of Orange Mycena fruiting on a long-dead log. They are so bright it’s hard to resist them.

I had to search quite a while before finding one of these gorgeous Boletes that would make a good photo. So many were jammed up into branches, leaves, logs or each other and so I passed them by.

They were everywhere – mostly under Yellow Birches. Not sure of the ID as it could be one of many. Forgot to take one with me on the way back to the car so I could do a spore print. Doh! It’s a 20-ish image stack.

I found this beauty growing out of a log in the yard. I think it’s one of the many types of Oyster mushrooms. It’s about 3 inches across and these are both stacks of about 20 shots each.

Look at the size of this baby!

I think it’s a rather old Chicken of the Woods. If it had been Hen of the Woods I’d have been out of the kayak in a second. Alas.

This next one is from my trip back to New Hampshire in September. There were TONS of these purple Cortinarius mushrooms fruiting on every trail I walked. Unfortunately I did a really stupid thing. I’d planned to take the GorillaPod with me so removed the cage from the camera. Then I couldn’t find it and decided to bring the PlatyPod with a ballhead instead. Guess what I forgot to put back on the camera? Sigh. So I ended up having to pass by a lot of mushrooms I’d liked to have photographed. This one with the Partridge berry was just too much and I ended up handholding it with the camera braced on the ground.

I had no idea there was a raindrop clinging to the bottom of the cap so – bonus!

Speaking of cap, check out this hole –

It’s in what is probably another Destroying Angel and so it’s obviously not toxic to everything, but is a good reminder that just because another animal eats something, it doesn’t mean a human should. I often see Amanitas, Russulas and other not-so-great-for-humans mushrooms with bites taken out of them, or just plain shredded and eaten with just scraps leftover. With the large number of flies I also see around mushrooms, it makes me wonder if that’s what’s drilling these holes.

I think this funny, little thing is also an Amanita species…possibly a Tawny Grisette, but with the cap this tight it’s hard to really tell. It was growing in a group of trees all attached at the base with one trunk to the ground and four going to the sky.

Absolutely no idea what this is, but it had some friends I noticed first, but they were not in a great position so I walked around the tree and found this one. It looks a little forlorn and grumpy.

This is a biggish stack of an amazing Russula –

Usually by the time they are this old, something has nibbled on them, but look a that – no takers! I love the diagonal the tree root brings and how it separates the mossy sections.

Next a pair of Funeral Bells and some friends. The colorful leaves in the back made for a perfect color palette –

Another from NH and I swear I found it like this – all lit up in a Hemlock grove that blocked most of the sun. Handheld with my hand on the ground and it’s a 2 (or maybe 3) shot stack which is amazing. Zerene sometimes aligns things that I think will be impossible. It’s one of the Destroying Angels in the Amanita family I’m pretty sure. Look, but don’t eat.

This one is definitely eaten, but it was up on a stump with a decent background so I went in and did a 40-ish image stack. Not sure what kind it actually is, seems like a Hygrocybe, but it was late for those. Not sure, but it is cute.

I’m bouncing all over the place with this post. Another from NH, the usual camera on the ground trick and this time it’s a group of Mycena, possibly the Yellow stem variety. I love that one has already collapsed from their partying.

And finally, a tiny Bolete of some kind. It was all alone and looking so adorable I had to stop. It’s another stack and I love the scale that the Hemlock needles bring.

Phew! Next up some fall photos from Horicon Marsh!