Mushroom Monday - Finally the Mushrooms are Growing

Looks like its another #mushroommonday and this time the weather is finally bringing out mushrooms in my area.

I went out into one of my usual spots and visited the huge polypore that has mini polypores growing out of the side of it. The large polypore is vertical now that the tree has fallen over and now it continues to grow as a shelf format with little new ones coming out of the bottom of it.

Here's another angle of the old timer mushroom. There's even a larger one beneath it that is starting to grow into a branch nearby.

Nearby I found another black footed polypore getting swarmed by insects. You can see a little millipede to the left zooming towards it for a feast.

I flipped it over to look at the black foot and there was a strange worm feasting on the pores. I wonder what sort of moth it will turn into...

The rain and humidity are puffing up and starting new batches of split gills aka Schizophyllum commune.

These are quite tiny little mushroom not even as big as a dime. They are quite recognizable from above as they are little white and fuzzy discs with a stem attaching them to the branch.

The easiest way to identify them is by flipping them over to look at their dual sided gills hence the common name split gill. I like to collect these and let them dry out in a mason jar. They will store indefinitely and you can just soak them in water to liven them up for cooking. They also taste great because they have a deep and rich mushroom flavor.

I found a nice edible as well. Here's a meadow mushroom aka Agaricus campestris.

White mushrooms out in the wild can be quite risky to forage as the deadly destroying angels look like this from a distance. But if you look at all the anatomy of the mushroom you can form an accurate identification. First off meadow mushrooms have a white non-rough stem that doesn't attach to the gills along with a veil covering the gills at a younger age.

Once you peel off the veil you can see the pink symmetrical gills. At older ages these gills will turn almost black or a dark brown.

One of the most important features of the meadow mushroom is it lacks a bulb at the bottom of the stem. This is very important because the deadly Amanita phalloides (death cap) has a fat bulb at the end of the stem. This one just tapered down straight into the ground confirming it is an edible meadow mushroom.

That's all for now, more finds soon and happy hunting :-)