Fungi Friday - Fungi Stars

Here are a few interesting finds for this #fungifriday

Here is an earth star aka Geastrum triplex.

You can easily see why they are called earth stars. They are basically a strange hybrid of a puffball fungi and a stinkhorn. The inner ball is what contains the spores and as they dry out clouds of spores puff out.

This is what they look like starting out. They almost look like a flower bulb. I've read that stinkhorns are edible at this stage perhaps these earth stars are as well. I doubt it tastes very good though.

Here are some reddening lepiotas that are way past their prime.

Their Latin name is Leucoagaricus americanus and they are a good edible that is pretty easy to identify.

You can see where they get their common name from. As they get older they turn into a brick red color. You can also get a positive ID by cutting the stem and watching the flesh turn red.

This is what they look like at a younger age. They look similar to many other parasol mushrooms including the vomiter aka Chlorophyllum molybdites. It is key to check for the red staining on the cut stem so you don't accidentally eat a vomiter mushroom lol.

Now for a group of little brown mushrooms aka LBMs. LBMs are a lump term for unidentifiable mushrooms that look like any other LBM. You might need to have a dna kit to be able to get an ID on them.

I usually take a picture of the gills of LBMs to maybe pin down an ID on them later.

That's all for now happy hunting and #fungifriday :-)