Fungi Friday - My Poor Dried Out Mushrooms
Here are some more mushroom finds this week for #fungifriday
Look at my poor dried out reddening lepiotas.
Just last week there were nice and vibrant and hydrated. This would probably be the perfect time to harvest them. I didn't harvest them because they are growing out of fertilized soil and probably contain lots of chemicals.
A cold dry wind came in and dried out these two before they could open their caps. You can see why they are called reddening lepiotas, if you cut the stem they will bleed red and when they dry out they have a reddish brown color compared to when they start out as all white.
Here are some unidentified LBMs (little brown mushrooms) they also seem to have been dried out by the cold wind. They are growing out of some railroad ties, I'm sure they have all sorts of petroleum chemicals in them from the treated railroad tie wood. Mushrooms are really good at absorbing chemicals and heavy metals so if you ever foraging avoid fertilized polluted places as you are likely to get a meal full of toxins.
Here are some split gills on a dead branch. These mushrooms are almost always dried out except for after a rain, but even then they dry out really fast. This makes them an easy mushroom to store for use later. You can harvest them and let them dry and they can be soaked in water again to make them ready for cooking. I'm keeping an eye on this branch to let them grow a bit larger before I harvest them.
Here are the split gills a bit closer. Eventually when they get larger the gills will have a split down the middle of each gill creating a unique pattern. Right now the split gill pattern isn't very noticeable. Their latin name is Schizophyllum commune.
Now for a bunch of ink caps. I suspect these are young pleated ink caps.
Tons of them were growing in a well watered lawn. These are edible as well but its not worth trying to harvest them because they are too small to merit a meal and when you cook them they dissolve into slime. At best you could use them in soup but then they don't really taste like anything. Not worth harvesting but cool to find since they grow in large numbers together.
Here are some more lawn mushrooms.
I thought they might be mower's mushrooms (Panaeolus foenisecii) at first glance but after looking at the gills they remain unidentified. My second guess would be these are mica caps in their late stage of growth another type of ink cap mushroom that is technically edible though not really worth eating.
That's all for now happy #fungifriday
Very cool #fungifriday photos @sketch.and.jam,
Thanks for giving such a nice description of all of them. I'm intrigued by the split gills because my first impression of them is that they don't look like something edible. I'm amazed at how much variety there is with mother natures delicacies. How does this thing taste? I'm betting it's a unique flavor. I like etymology too and find it cool to know the Latin name Schizophyllum commune. You are very knowledgeable.
PS. Didn't find much of anything on my outing, but had a nice time out there, and hoping to find some chicken of the woods because I really want to try this :)
Have a nice day :)
Yeah always keep an eye out for chicken of the woods also look up how hen of the woods looks (its very camouflage but also edible). The split gill Schizophyllum commune tastes like a more potent button mushroom (normal store mushrooms). I like to collect a bunch in a mason jar then when I have enough I can either powder them and add the powder to soup or just soak them in water and cook them like a normal mushroom. An interesting fact about this mushroom is it can also infect humans with low immune systems and actually feed off the human body lol. This is very rare of course and you have to be in really bad shape on the edge of death anyway for this to happen but its still kind of creepy especially for an edible mushroom.
Yeah that is creepy.. I was thinking it's weird the root of the Latin word is Schizo.. I'm not sure if I would eat that thing :D I'm just kidding.
Yeah i'm sure scizo refers to the doubling of their gill pattern. This shows their pattern a bit better at full grown size
Wow, this is a beautiful pattern!
Pretty unique for most mushrooms also easily identifiable compared to so many gilled ones that look the same. Its an easy beginner mushroom to forage and it grows in most countries.
They look yummy! Although it sucks it got dried out and it was on a fertilized soil. :/
One day hopefully I'll find them growing in the forest rather than on wood chips. Or maybe I'll try and get some to grow indoors via spores and augar.
This reddish brown color mushroom looks so beautiful and amazing and I really like it...
They are also edible if you can find them growing in a clean wild area.
A very interesting mushroom family!
Yeah they were doing well in the tree well until they got dried out with a cold wind.
I'm very interested in the mushrooms in the third photo, I've never found them
Yeah their latin name is Lepiota americana and they are fairly easy to ID if you cut the stem and it turns red its a reddening lepiota. I find them in spring and fall after lots of rain. Sadly though its always been in wood chips and fertilized soil. I'll have to see where they like to grow in the forest via some research.