Fungi Friday - Earth Stars and Friends

Here's a few rainy day fungi finds for this #fungifriday by @ewkaw

Here's the first of my finds, an earth star. These start out as an egg shape then bloom to reveal a puffball center. The latin name is Geastrum triplex and these are not edible but they are kind of cool looking in all their stages of growth.

Next I found some false oysters. From a distance I got excited thinking these might be edible yellow oyster mushrooms but on closer inspection they had all the features of a false oyster.

False oysters latin name is Phyllotopsis nidulans. They tend to not have a stem extending off the wood they grow on. Also their texture is very tough and they have a pungent skunk-like smell. Note the little crab spider on the gills @whatisnew.

Next I found some peziza fungi. This is a large family of fungi with lots of different subvariants. Some are edible some aren't and they have to be identified via their spores. So with all these variables I don't eat these. Also their taste is plain and not worth getting a tummy ache over.

Here's another peziza this one almost could confuse one to think its wood ear fungi. Wood ear is a nice edible but its texture is much more rubbery compared to peziza. If you pinch these peziza they will break off in pieces while wood ear is more like a gummy bear and bends/stretches.

One more peziza see the little bug in the cup? Peziza can grow on the ground, leaves and rotting wood.

Here's some turkeytail fungi aka trametes versicolor. These are a medicinal mushroom that have anticancer properties. I make a tea with them, you can also soak them in alcohol as drink it as a tincture.

This is an example of a ramaria coral fungi. I'm unsure of the exact latin name as there are a few different variants. Some of these ramaria are edible like the crown tipped coral that grows on the side of dead wood. This ramaria is growing out of the ground so it might not be edible or it could be bitter and poisonous.

Here's a cluster of tiny orange mushrooms on dead wood. I have yet to identify these they probably have a long latin name and no common name.

I've found these numerous times and they are unique in the way they cover dead wood. They are always found in huge clusters.

Fall is starting to show up, here's a nice red maple leaf on some false turkeytail. False turkeytail bends upward and is thinner than real turkeytail. Also the pores underneath false turkeytail are tiny and smooth. That's it for this #fungifriday happy hunting :-)

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