Monday, August 3, 2009

Fungi

Blue Jay Barrens has had over five inches of rain during the past two weeks and I’m beginning to see a lot of different fungi. I’m going to include some possible identifications, but I’ve done very little work with fungi so don’t rely too heavily on the names I attach. The one above was growing in one of the prairie areas. There were several of this type in the same area, but this one was my favorite because it seemed to be showing a friendly face.

Here’s one of the same species that has developed a little further. This shot shows pores instead of gills under the cap, leading me to believe this is one of the Boletes.

This is one of the puffballs and the pattern developing on the top looks like that of the Purple-spored Puffball. These puffballs are common in a section of mowed trail through one of the prairies.

An older version of the same type of puffball. The picture would lead you to believe that the top was shaved off by the mower. This puffball developed and produced spores in the time between mowings. The rain beat away the top skin and left this soggy mass of spores. You can see the pit marks left by the rain drops. These spores certainly look purple to me.

There were a lot of tiny capped fungi. This one was growing out of a decomposing cedar branch.

I found this little thing in an area surrounded by large cedars.

The orange color of this bracket type fungi was like a beacon. There were little patches like this all along a fallen tree trunk.

One of my favorites. This little yellow guy seemed to glow under its own power. It reminded me of a book called “The Wonderful Flight to the Mushroom Planet” that I read as a kid. The book was about kids who travel to another planet and find, among other things, strange mushrooms. The book was one of the first chapter books I read and I remember reading a lot of it beneath my bed where I wouldn’t be disturbed. A glowing mushroom would have fit nicely into the story.

I know this is one of the Earthstars and think it might be Collared Earthstar. That stuff around the base of the central globe is what’s left of the covering that peeled back to produce the star pattern. There’s not much left of it now. It was growing out of a bed of cedar needles.

A white cap on a white stalk growing on the creek bank. You can see a background of water in the creek that is quite unusual for this time of year.

The squirrels got to this one before I did. They seemed to enjoy it quite a lot.

Here’s another the squirrels haven’t yet gotten to. This is growing out of a thick bed of pine needles. I believe this is the Spotted Collybia, which typically grows from decomposing pine needles and branches.

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