The summer of Mushrooms!

Ok, I'm sure you've all seen them. There are zillions of mushrooms this year in the mountains! Let's see some of your best shots. Here are 2 from Laurie to start the ball rolling:

http://viewsandbrews.com/temp/ctm.jpg

We called it the Plum Tomato Mushroom. It was the same shape, size and color of one.

http://viewsandbrews.com/temp/mm2.jpg

This one was larger than my outstretched hand!

Maine Chanterelles

We were tripping in northern Maine last week and with all the rain there wasn't much to do but pick and eat chanterelles:



We also had a meal of Maine crayfish which you couldn't tell from shrimp.

This isn't a mushroom, its a lichen but thats close, right?
Anyway, I took this yesterday near an abandoned granite quarry near Moose Mt.

british soldiers:

“Many people do not know that mushroom identification is extremely difficult--not at all like identifying, say, trees. There are about 200 (natural) species of trees in North America, and a good field guide can usually help you figure out what tree you're looking at. In contrast, no one knows how many mushroom species there are (estimates range as high as 30,000 for North America); scientists do not even agree on what constitutes a "species" of mushroom or on how they can be identified; and most of the species that have been named so far require microscopic analysis for positive identification.”

Thus I don’t have a clue what I’m looking at but they sure are pretty.

I’m told this is ‘jack-o-lantern’


a ‘puff ball’


this white spiny thing is small (notice the acorn next to it)


I like purple

mmmmm....puffballs are yummy!

The purple are violet cortinarius, the puffball is the gem-studded, and yes, that is the Jack-o-lantern which is quite poisonous and sometimes mistaken for the golden chanterelles. We have a huge diversity here at Tin Mountain Conservation Center and I'll get pics up once I get a lot to choose from.
Mushrooms are cool.

Some more from today’s hike.

a bright spot in the dark forest


skinny little legs


horns in the ground



french fries or cheese sticks?

I can't believe I'm the first to ask this. Which ones are great for a long rainy day with with old college roomates.

<just joking around>

Though I have not been up into the mountains in a few weeks, in my own back yard I have a variety of mushrooms, fungi and though technically not a fungi, Indian Pipes. Here is my Mushrooms in the Yard collection.

Included in the album is a photo of the largest Indian Pipe gathering I have ever some across. Has anyone ever seen such a large group of Pipes? Is this relatively normal? This is 75 feet from my house on the banks of a brook in a pine grove. In the 20 years I have been in this house I have never seen Indian Pipes anywhere in the yard or in the surrounding woods.

JohnL

Interestingly enough, Indian Pipes are not a fungus, but a flowering plant!

Indian Pipes

indian pipe (monotropa)

Clusters are normal - you usually see a handful of stems almost touching, and when you see one cluster you often see more nearby. But I've never seen a cluster that dense or numerous.

JohnL said:

Included in the album is a photo of the largest Indian Pipe gathering I have ever some across. Has anyone ever seen such a large group of Pipes? Is this relatively normal? This is 75 feet from my house on the banks of a brook in a pine grove. In the 20 years I have been in this house I have never seen Indian Pipes anywhere in the yard or in the surrounding woods.

JohnL

Click to expand...

Actually I have often seen clusters of Indian Pipe. This was taken 4 years ago:



And if you see what looks like Indian Pipe with multiple heads it’s actually Pinesap:

Photo time:
orange and red
orange
pink
black
pastel
tremella?
collecting rainwater
purple
And speaking of monotropa, here's a pink one from last year (saw one last weekend too, wasn't quite as pink and didn't get as good a photo).

White Crown-tipped Coral

Saw this unusual flora on Mount Major last week. Soft and "spongy" like a sea sponge. Sent an e-mail to the chef of "The Black Trumpet" in Portsmouth, and he sent me his opinion of the species from the image.



Also saw this one on that same hike...



These were on the Hammond Trail going up Chochorua...




It certainly has mushroomed into a summer of wet hikes... all my photo slide shows have fungi in them!!!

Pinesap and Indian Pipes

These are not recent shots, just wanted to show the difference between Pinesap Monotropa hypopithys and Indian Pipes Monotropa uniflora. Of course, neither of these are mushrooms.



Pinesap Monotropa hypopithys



Indian Pipes Monotropa uniflora

Here's a great resource for identifying mushrooms:

http://gallery.cs.umb.edu/gallery/main.php?g2_itemId=321636


KDT

found this mushroom at Maidstone State Park this weekend along the "loon trail":

Amanita mushroom found on Dry Brook Ridge (Catskills)

http://www.kodakgallery.com/PhotoVi...1&sort_order=&albumsperpage=&navfolderid=2008

I’m told this is ‘jack-o-lantern’

Click to expand...

Looks a lot like a mushroom orgy.

i just couldn't help myself
well they are reproducing