Thelephora penicillata

Monday Mushroom #84

 An unusual, tassely fungus found fighting for space with the moss on soggy forest floors.

Thelephora penicillata

Thelephora penicillata

Yellow Stagshorn Fungus

Monday Mushroom #80

Calocera viscosa - Yellow Stagshorn Fungus

Aniseed Toadstool

Monday Mushroom #79

Clitocybe odora - Aniseed Toadstool

Given my interest in fungi, my interest in blue food, and that I love aniseed, this mushroom has been something I've been super keen to find. In fact, my first intensive mushroom identifying season was kickstarted by finding something which I thought might be this on a holiday in Skye.

Clitocybe odora - Aniseed Toadstool

All the blue-green caps I've come across in between times have turned out to be Stropharia species. But I'm pretty sure I have the right one here - it's the right, colour, texture and size; the caps were wavy; the stem is un-ringed; it has the fuzzy white mycelium at the base. I say pretty sure because, although these look right, the distinguishing feature - the aniseed scent - is missing! How disappointing!

Clitocybe odora - Aniseed Toadstool

I did find one reference to faded specimens being hard to identify if the scent was not strong, and I don't know of any other blue fungi that these might be. So I'm sticking with the identification, for now...

Yellow Cobweb

Yellow Cobweb Fungus - Phlebiella sulphurea

Often you only notice the fruiting body of a fungus, but the yellow cobweb grows as a thick, fleecy mat of mycelium - often found on the underside of logs. The fruiting body, when it forms, is a sulphurous crust fungus.

Shaggy Bracket

Monday Mushroom #75

 This is Inonotus hispidus - the shaggy bracket - a large bracket fungus often high up in ash trees, with red or yellow tinges, blackening with age.

Inonotus hispidus - shaggy bracket.

Inonotus hispidus - shaggy bracket. A very large specimen, blackened with age,

Pycnoporus coccineus

Monday Mushroom #73

Pycnoporus is a genus of bright red bracket polypores with world-wide distribution, divided into species mostly by geographic region. This is Pycnoporus coccineus the native species from Australia and New Zealand.

It has an eye-catching bright red-orange colouration and is usually rather messy in form - sometimes looking more like a glob of putty than anything natural.

Dryad's Saddle

Monday Mushroom #72

Here is a newly emerged Dryad's Saddle fruiting body - they appear in early to mid summer.  The disc-shaped caps expand rapidly...

Polyporus squamosus - Dryad's Saddle.

...becoming wavy, irregular brackets somewhat larger than dinner-plates. Some are even a bit saddle-shaped, though most remind me more of the shape of an old-fashioned tractor seat.

Polyporus squamosus - Dryad's Saddle.

Dung Egghead

Monday Mushroom #69

Panaeolus semiovatus - Dung Egghead growing on an old cow pat.

Common in fields where it grows on animal dung.

Yellow Swamp Russule

Monday Mushroom #68

Russula claroflava - Yellow Swamp Russule

A bright yellow, medium sized russula of boggy birch woods.

Birds Nest Fungus

Monday Mushroom #65

Crucibulum laeve - Birds Nest Fungus. Lots of stages of development from tiny pins to old, cracked cups.

This is Crucibulum laeve - one of the birds nest fungi. Their spores are grouped into white, rounded packets and are dispersed by raindrops splashing into the cup shaped body.

Crucibulum laeve - Birds Nest Fungus. Lid on right is disintegrating.

The fruiting bodies develop with a protective cover which shrivels and falls away on maturation.

Crucibulum laeve - Birds Nest Fungus

 Each cup is only 5-10mm in diamiter, and though distinctive, they are easily overlooked.

Crucibulum laeve - Birds Nest Fungus. A dense cluster of emptied cups.

More Octopus Stinkhorns

Monday Mushroom #61

Just some more photos of the wonderful Octopus Stinkhorn - Clathrus archeri. I'm pleased to say it seems to be a very common, easy to spot mushroom in parks and gardens around Auckland. Its 'tentacles' are quite variable in form and colour.

Octopus Stinkhorn - Clathrus archeri

Octopus Stinkhorn - Clathrus archeri

Octopus Stinkhorn - Clathrus archeri

Octopus Stinkhorn - Clathrus archeri

Previous post with more photos is here: http://wild-e-eep.blogspot.co.nz/2014/05/octopus-stinkhorn.html

Austroboletus Niveus

Monday Mushroom #60

This is Austroboletus niveus - a fairly large and handsome bolette native to New Zealand.

Austroboletus niveus

It has a soft, spongy texture and is the only mushroom I know which, on handling, imparts a sticky, resin-like substance which is difficult to remove from the skin.

I haven't been able to find much written about it at all... :-/

Austroboletus niveus

Octopus Stinkhorn

Here's an outlandish-looking stinkhorn from New Zealand - the octopus stinkhorn. 

Clathrus archeri - Octopus Stinkhorn

Clathrus archeri - Octopus Stinkhorn

Clathrus archeri - Octopus Stinkhorn

Clathrus archeri - Octopus Stinkhorn

Killer Fungus

Monday Mushroom #57

Cordyceps Spp - Caterpillar Fungus

This kind of fungus infects and kills (and lives entirely on) insects. Such fungi are particularly prevalent in the warm, dank interior of the rain forest but similar fungi occur even in Britain.

Fungus / Moss / Lichen Fight!

Monday Mushroom #56

 Here is the wrinkled crust fungus erupting from a dead tree, smothering the lichens and mosses that already cover its surface.

Phlebia radiata - Wrinkled Crust Fungus

Phlebia radiata - Wrinkled Crust Fungus

Phlebia radiata - Wrinkled Crust Fungus

Dyer's Mazegill

Monday Mushroom #55

Phaeolus schweinitzii - Dyer's Mazegill

This impressive, bright yellow mushroom, with mazey gills, can be used to dye fabric producing various shades of green, orange and yellow depending on the mordant.

Phaeolus schweinitzii - Dyer's Mazegill

Phaeolus schweinitzii - Dyer's Mazegill

Phaeolus schweinitzii - Dyer's Mazegill

The fruiting bodies dry out fairly quickly, but often last all year as a blackened, crumbling mess.

Bog Beacon Redux

Monday Mushroom #54

Mitrula paludosa - Bog Beacon

I was so excited about finding a patch of bog beacons, that I blogged about them before I'd gotten any decent photos, so here are some better pics to go with this old post.

Mitrula paludosa - Bog Beacon

Bog beacons didn't make it into Skyrim - the follow up to Oblivion, but it does have several very fine fungi of its own including Fly Amanita and Collared Earth Star.

Mitrula paludosa - Bog Beacon

Chanterelle's Less Showy Sibling

Monday Mushroom #53

The regular chanterelles are over, but the winter chanterelle is still growing strong. They grow in much greater profusion than regular chanterelles, but are so like dead leaves in shape and colour (from a distance) that they are rarely noticed - even when growing in dense carpets.

Cantharellus tubaeformis - Winter Chanterelle

Cantharellus tubaeformis - Winter Chanterelle

Cantharellus tubaeformis - Winter Chanterelle

Cantharellus tubaeformis - Winter Chanterelle

Cantharellus tubaeformis - Winter Chanterelle

Orange Peel

Monday Mushroom #52

A bright, little mushroom that grows on bare, stony ground - often at the side of dirt tracks and footpaths.

Aleuria aurantia - Orange peel fungus

Aleuria aurantia - Orange peel fungus

Coconutty!

Monday Mushroom #51

Lactarius glyciosmus - Coconut-scented Milkcap

Not so exciting to look at perhaps, but this species of milkcap bears a distinctly coconutty odour.

Lactarius glyciosmus - Coconut-scented Milkcap

 It doesn't taste very nice, though.

Lactarius glyciosmus - Coconut-scented Milkcap

Milkcaps are named for the milky droplets exuded from breaks in their gills.