Mycology

I love the shape it took. It looks like a Dementor about to attack.

Also got a neat photo of Chroogomphus and Suillus mushrooms growing together, I guess pine spikes are supposed to parasitize members of the Suillus genus.

I thought this was a lichen at first, but it doesn't appear to be. I've never seen blue markings like these. I did find signs of green elfcup nearby. Could it be that?

Under the orange mushroom there is a sneaky green elfcup I missed when I took this.

Here’s a picture where you can see the tree hole it was in.

From the Wikipedia:

Dryad's saddle is an annual mushroom commonly found attached to dead logs and stumps or on living hardwood trees at one point with a thick stem. Generally, the fruit body is round and between 8–30 centimetres (3–12 inches) acros – exceptionally 60 cm (24 in) – and up to 10 cm (4 in) thick. The body can be yellow to brown and has "squamules" or scales on its upper side. On the underside one can see the pores that are characteristic of the genus Cerioporus; they are made up of tubes packed together closely.

It was high up so I couldn’t see the "squamules".

Growing on a tree in my back yard

Found my first lobsters the other day, I thought they were rocks spray-painted by forestry workers. We cooked the best one up with a little butter until slightly crisp on the outside. Honestly, I'm not sure why these are so highly regarded. The texture was similar to styrofoam, kind of mealy, not that different from Russula and the flavour was lacking. I'd still like to try them again, maybe it was just a subpar lobster.

So, after years of searching for chanterelles, I rock up to this massive flush of yellow mushrooms and thought oh, probably not but I better just check if chanterelles. As I got closer they looked more and more like chanterelles. I actually almost walked away from them because I didn't want to be disappointed again and they were not growing where I expected them to be, in a very dry spot out in the open, packed into gravel.

I was convinced these didn't grow in my area. I still haven't seen them in my immediate area but it does tend to be a lot drier than the surrounding areas. We picked maybe 3 lbs or more. All the trimmings were dropped in my usual spots with similar tree species to where I found them, just in case they had spores attached or had the urge to clone themselves. I don't usually put much stock in the whole 'use a net bag, you'll disperse more spores' thing but idk, can't hurt.

Anyways, I'm a happy hunter.

Called the "Dyer's Polypore" because people use it to make fabric dyes which sounds like another hobby I don't have time for. The PNW version turned out to be a distinct species from the European Phaoleus schweinitzii which is the name field guides have been using for decades.

This is softer than most polypores, I was surprised how easily a chunk came off.

Here's the same piece a few hours later after the stains where I touched the pores have fully darkened.

Magnified! The pores are pretty unusual, shallow and angular.

Info: https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/summer-continental-mycoblitz-2025

Love to participate in these types of events, I find they really help me focus on my observation skills and they're a neat way to get involved with sequencing if you have no idea where to start.

Came across a nice patch when I was walking my dog in the woods .

I gave a talk on outdoor mushroom cultivation this spring and gave everyone wine cap spawn to inoculate their gardens. Had an extra bag and was able to do a bed of my own. I was really impressed with how vigorous the mycelium was compared to growing other oyster species outdoors.

I will say these had a really strong flavour that was not my favorite. I left them longer than I wanted to so I could get a spore print to show my mushroom club so could have been better had I picked them younger