Weird and Wonderful Wild Mushrooms

Weird and Wonderful Wild Mushrooms Jan Thornhill's celebration of wild mushrooms and other fungi.

I’ve been exploring the astonishing fungal diversity near my southern Ontario home for more than 25 years – collecting, cataloguing, photographing, preserving, and, of course, cooking and eating members of this amazing Kingdom. To share some of what I’ve learned, I offer workshops on collecting, identifying, and using wild fungi, as well as personalized forays.

So here's an absolutely amazing little critter (thanks Bill Yule!!), the larva of a fungus gnat, but not Leptomorphus sp...
09/05/2024

So here's an absolutely amazing little critter (thanks Bill Yule!!), the larva of a fungus gnat, but not Leptomorphus sp. as I originally thought. This one is more likely from the family Keroplatidae (Thanks, Suhaib Firdous Yatoo!). A bunch of these guys are spore eaters, primarily of those produced by polypores and resupinate crust fungi. This one has made its home on the pore-pocked underside of a Tinder Polypore (Fomes excavatus). At night, it spins a web that covers the entire pore surface of the mushroom, a web so fine it gleams like cellophane (or slug slime!). This web catches falling spores which, during the day, the larva consumes along with bits of the web, and then repairs the parts it eats so that more spores can be trapped. Maggot of the week!

This is the same pair of species I posted a few weeks ago – the parasite, Hypomyces papulasporae var. americanus and one...
08/30/2024

This is the same pair of species I posted a few weeks ago – the parasite, Hypomyces papulasporae var. americanus and one of its Trichoglossum hosts, the Hairy Earthtongue – but this time they look as if they're illuminated from the inside.

This is Artomyces pyxidatus, a very common coral fungus. Unlike most coral fungi, this one is incredibly easy to identif...
08/30/2024

This is Artomyces pyxidatus, a very common coral fungus. Unlike most coral fungi, this one is incredibly easy to identify because a) it only grows on hardwood logs, and b) the tops of its branches clearly form unique little "crowns," hence its common name, Crown-tipped Coral. These ones are over-the-hill, approaching decrepitude, but their crowns are unquestionable.

A week ago, this Collared Earthstar (Geastrum triplex) looked like a giant capless acorn. As it matured, its fleshy oute...
08/16/2024

A week ago, this Collared Earthstar (Geastrum triplex) looked like a giant capless acorn. As it matured, its fleshy outer layer split apart forming pointed rays. Its "collar" is just starting to break away from the rays. In the middle is a puffball-like sphere that holds its spores. Eventually, when it's hit by raindrops, hundreds of thousands of spores will p**f out like smoke through the pleated "beak" at the top.

Microstoma floccossum has one of the goofier common names, Pink Fringed Faery Cup, and looks like it should have one of ...
08/13/2024

Microstoma floccossum has one of the goofier common names, Pink Fringed Faery Cup, and looks like it should have one of those strikingly coloured Poison Dart Frogs balanced on its rim, (though it's actually way too small for even those tiny amphibians; a ladybug would probably work better size-wise, (though maybe not aesthetically unless it was one of the black-with-red-spots versions of the invasive Asian Ladybug)).

Black "Hairy Earthtongue" (Trichoglossum hirsutum) – attacked by Hypomyces papulasporae var. americanus. This parasitic ...
07/27/2024

Black "Hairy Earthtongue" (Trichoglossum hirsutum) – attacked by Hypomyces papulasporae var. americanus. This parasitic fungus is nowhere near as well known as its much showier sibling, Hypomyces lactifluorum, that turns a few white Lactarius and Russula species into yummy red-orange "Lobster Mushrooms."

Love the way the insides of this Dog's Vomit Slime (Fuligo septica) that climbed up some grass look like a combo of spon...
07/11/2024

Love the way the insides of this Dog's Vomit Slime (Fuligo septica) that climbed up some grass look like a combo of sponge toffee and black marble shot with white quartz!

Here's a clutch of three wee Pholiota subsulphurea about to be decimated by one of those gluttonous, and glutinous, intr...
06/22/2024

Here's a clutch of three wee Pholiota subsulphurea about to be decimated by one of those gluttonous, and glutinous, introduced Arion slugs that were eating my Chanterelles last week.

There are all kinds of tiny gilled mushrooms in the Genus Mycena that are pretty much impossible to identify without mic...
06/22/2024

There are all kinds of tiny gilled mushrooms in the Genus Mycena that are pretty much impossible to identify without microscopy. A few, though, have such distinct macroscopic characteristics that they can be fairly easily named. Mycena odifera is one of these, partly because of its mucous-covered stem and sticky cap, but also because, even though it's tiny (this collection is not even 1.5cm tall) it reeks! Mycoquebec describes the smell as very strongly fragrant and fruity and persistent. I think it's absolutely nauseating but, for some reason, like the smell of skunk in the distance, it always brings me joy.

The word you're looking for for those stiff, pointed hairs is "strigose." The mushrooms are Mycena parabolica, not very ...
04/07/2024

The word you're looking for for those stiff, pointed hairs is "strigose." The mushrooms are Mycena parabolica, not very big and found on wood, in this case, well-rotted hemlock.

Burn-barrel morels!
06/03/2023

Burn-barrel morels!

While trying to encourage the growth of ascomycetes in my deer dung nursery a large myxo plasmodium suddenly appeared on...
05/09/2023

While trying to encourage the growth of ascomycetes in my deer dung nursery a large myxo plasmodium suddenly appeared on two walls of the container. It matured into what micro suggests is Physarum daamsii.

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