Common split gill with bonus beetle

Lookie!

I was poking along in the woods on a chilly mid-November morning, found a stick with a bunch of little white bracket fungi on it, turned it over and found this surprise—a little beetle (Seven-spotted Lady Beetle, Coccinella septempunctata), taking refuge on the underside of a Schizophyllum commune.

When I viewed it full-screen, there was another surprise—there’s actually a tiny bug on the beetle! On the bigger black spot, that little tan thing. Jan. 17 edit: the tiny bug on the beetle is a springtail, a Collembola--those things are everywhere.



Whoo! I love me some Schizophyllum commune.

The big central one is about an inch across.

Those aren’t gills, it is a folded pore surface that looks like gills.

Trametes versicolor collection

For today's post, I give you good ol' turkey tails.

I just love these things. Like velveteen agates. They're really common, found all over the world.

I have a deep affection for these, but I didn't realize I've been taking pictures of them so often. I was looking for something else in some older images, and kept finding more pics of these, so I rounded up some of my favorites. These were all taken over the past year. Some are technically crappy, but look at the colors.

I'd like to know what causes the stripes and the different colors. The green one has algae growing on it, so it's excused. 

Personal favorite is the golden one, near the bottom.

 

 

Quick chanterelle beauty

Young chanterelles and grapevine

This lovely composition was nicely arranged for me before I got there, I guess by faeries (photo from June 28th).

Old polypore sculpture, Ganoderma applanatum

Ganoderma applanatum, "Artist's conk"

Look, I don't make this stuff, I just find it

Here's another one







Six years after I posted this, I looked at it again, and now I think it's Ganoderma applanatum, an old one. The original post was "Fresh young polypore sculpture" and I had identified it as Ischnoderma resinosum. But now I don't remember where it was growing, and I don't have more details to refer to. I was overly eager, and fairly inexperienced. It's a phase many mushroom people go through. No shame.

Grisette--Amanita vaginata--and Clavulinopsis laeticolor

"Grisette," Amanita vaginata.

 Common name refers to a French working-class woman, usually a part-time "flirt;" from "gris" (grey), the color of the cheap unbleached clothing they wore.
Anyway, these mushrooms have characteristic striated cap edges, a ring and a nice volva.
Bonus: this photo appears in Michael Kuo's latest book, "Mushrooms of the Midwest"!











Tiny orange coral, probably Clavulinopsis laeticolor.

Purple Russula & Fat Coral Mushroom

Lovely coral fungus, Ramaria sp.













Russula mariae (best guess). Russulas are not easy to identify without checking a lot of different features, none of which I was aware of when I found this.

Destroying Angel and Common Split-gill

Schizophyllum commune, "common split-gill" (very young ones)

Amanita bisporigera, "Destroying Angel." Most field guides call this A. virosa (or A. verna, depending on whether or not it turns yellow when KOH is applied), but those turn out to be European species. 

Amanita bisporigera's large ring on stem

Netted Rhodotus and old Laccaria

 

Netted Rhodotus, Rhodotus palmatus

Something else, I'd say an old Laccaria ochropurpurea

Boletes and Tremella fuciformis with Ophiostoma epigloeum

Lumpy Bolete
Dimpled cap points to Leccinum, maybe.
 














Another bolete, slowly bruising blue

Little jelly (about 1-1/2")

Tremella fuciformis.

See the little black spines? That's a parasitic fungus that only grows on T. fuciformis. I don't remember how I chanced upon that bit of information. I learned it as Ophiostoma epigloeum, apparently now it's Sporothrix epigloea.

Black-footed polypore, Polyporus badius

Didn't know what these were for a while. They were pliable, and BIG. Underside white and smooth.
Polyporus badius.
These change appearance pretty dramatically over the course of their lives, very young ones are pale grey with a smooth rounded outline, from a distance they look like oyster mushrooms. They turn a dark reddish brown as they mature.

Purple gills--Laccaria ochropurpurea

This is one of the very first mushrooms I photographed. I didn't know what the hell I was looking at.

Aug. 29, 2009

It is Laccaria ochropurpurea, an old one. Young fresh ones have a cap like what you think a mushroom cap looks like.

This was the fateful day that I fell in love with mushrooms, my camera, and macro-nature photography. I was being taken to a spot where a friend had discovered chanterelles--as in, he had found some, didn't know what they were, looked them up, found they were choice edibles, picked some, ate some, and was taking me with him to pick more--and as we scouted them out, so many other mushrooms began to reveal themselves that I just didn't know how to act. They were everywhere. How many other times in my life of considering myself a nature-girl had I been hiking and somehow not seen them? Crazy. Just goes to show, you see what you're looking for.

I found many, many more of these throughout the season.

Below, why you shouldn't use your flash up close. Bleah.

Later I found there's a setting to back down the intensity of the flash (RYFM = Read Your F---ing Manual), but still, I've never been happy with the results. It seems to take away from the intimacy of the subject. It's a point-and-shoot camera, so my control is limited (not to disparage my camera--I love that thing--the worlds it has shown me--). But my future holds a different camera...