Mushrooms are not my most familiar subject, especially as far as specific types go. Most of the ones I can specifically recognize are the distinctive looking ones (exactly the ones you’d expect). Mushrooms are undoubtedly worth knowing about, but so far I have mostly just been observing (and photographing) them. And I’ve been spotting some interesting ones lately.
A super tiny mushroom among some lichens and larger shelf type mushrooms on a fallen cherry tree. This tree alone has offered a wide variety of mushrooms a place to grow, and has been one of my top places to look for mushrooms.This is some sort of bird’s nest mushroom, but these ‘nests’ are not open yet…Bird’s nest mushrooms again, but this time they are open, and showing off the ‘eggs’ inside, but I think this kind looks more like little cups of stones than the ones in the mushroom book I was using to identify them. There are different kinds, though, and in some the ‘eggs’ (which are actually packets of spores) are white like eggs (not that all eggs are white, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen grey eggs).Some more bird’s nest mushrooms, and these ones are very ripe (and smushed together pretty tightly).These mushrooms were growing from a chunk of earth torn out of the ground by a fallen tree in the woods. This is the spot where they were thickest, which was in deep shadow, and it was dusk, so this picture is pretty dim, but it captures the scene quite accurately.Some more mushrooms growing on the chunk of earth around the roots of a fallen tree; these were on the eastern side, catching the light of the setting sun.More of the mushrooms on the eastern side, after the light had faded again.Mushrooms growing on a fallen log in the woods.I have no idea what this mushroom is. It was found in the leaf litter in the woods.These were so tiny they just looked like tiny whitish bumps on a mossy log when I spotted them. The way they were clustered intrigued me, so I took some pictures.More super tiny mushrooms. They were challenging to get a picture of, but the result was a better view of them than I could get with my own unaided vision, since they were too tiny to make out in any detail.Yet another mushroom I don’t know what it is. It reminds me of turkey-tail, but I think turkey-tail is more colorful. Turkey-tail is one I would like to learn to identify, as I’m almost certain I’ve seen it on the fallen cherry tree (as well as other places) so it seems to be a common mushroom in this area.These are the mushrooms I think might actually be turkey-tails. These were on the fallen cherry tree last February, and the only ones I’m including in this series that weren’t spotted in the last couple months.These mushrooms also kind of look like turkey-tail, and they’re more colorful than the ones they were growing right next to…
