AstroGypsies

♪♫♪ Don’t go into the woods today…♫♪♫ should have been playing…What WAS I thinking? It was too hot, way too humid and did I mention the bugs? If I’d fallen I would have looked like this fungi: Dead Man’s Fingers (Xylaria polymorpha) then the mosquitos would have drained the blood from me and the deer flies eaten the flesh…why they only find bones in the forest…but I wouldn’t have seen this cool fungi! They really do like like fingers reaching up to pull you dowwwwnnnn….hahahaha! What a wonderful weird world we live in!

Less than the size of my thumb! Collared Parachute (Marasmius rotula)are so cool. I went back as my first photos were not in focus, had a hard time finding them! So many things popping out of the damp ground! These guys are new one for me! Marasmius rotula grows in deciduous forests and fruits in groups or clusters on dead wood (especially beech), woody debris such as twigs or sticks, and occasionally on rotting leaves. They need lots and lots of moisture..wait, cue a thunderstorm please! Marasmius rotula is generally considered inedible, but is not poisonous. We’ll find something else for soup!

Four days later, they were completely dried out little parasols!

I just had to keep wandering;) The variety in the hour and half I was out there fighting off the voracious deerflies and mosquitos was wild!

Golden Spindles and Yellow Unicorn Entoloma (?) (Entoloma murrayi) Tell him unicorns don’t exist! Ha!

So many Amanitas and Brittlegills-Russula is a very large genus composed of around 750 worldwide species of ectomycorrhizal mushrooms. They are typically common, fairly large, and brightly colored – making them one of the most recognizable genera among mycologists and mushroom collectors.

I was halfway running a few times, mosquitos got under my fly mask! Makes focusing a bitch! In several places I could see where someone/thing had been digging around the mushrooms and had uprooted them…Pamela looks around…what was that large crash?…feeling jumpy, just a branch! No large bear footprints to be seen;) Raccoons or skunks poking around most likely!

I am slowly learning who and what they are. They change in the space of the day from one shape to another so unless I am walking the same exact path, it’s hard to tell what is what, wait a minute? Were you not a cone shape yesterday and an umbrella today?

Eastern North American Destroying Angel (Amanita bisporigera) closed, then three days later: opened up. I did try to walk the same way but it was getting late in the day, I could hear the thunder rumbling in the distance so I hurried along. I wanted to check on the beautiful blue Indigo Milkcap as it usually is in the same place year after year, nothing yet, so I hurried on home with a swarm of deerflies following me! Bastards!

I have to admit I find the molds a bit creepy. Like flesh eating disease for mushrooms. I found not only the Amanita mold but also a Bolete mushroom mold as well according to iNaturalist, my go to ID spot, not always correct but it can give you an idea! “Hypomyces chrysospermus, the bolete eater, is a parasitic ascomycete fungus that grows on bolete mushrooms, turning the afflicted host a whitish, golden yellow, or tan color, and Hypomyces hyalinus is a species of parasitic fungi that attacks fungi of the genus Amanita. The parasitic effects of H. hyalinus thoroughly disfigures its host and in the absence of a nearby healthy specimen it can be impossible to determine the identity of the host in the field. Infection often covers the host mushroom preventing the expansion of the pileus (cap) and causing the pileus to deform and fuse to the stipe (stalk). As a consequence of this, the gills of the mushroom are also destroyed and the fruiting body dies without dispersing spores.” Mushroom flesh eating disease! Yikes!

I did promise you baby birds, well, soon. I was distracted by mushrooms;) I’ll leave you with a teaser, our resident juvenile Red-Bellied woodpecker has a sibling! woohoo! 😉 I’m just sitting here scratching my bug bites;) Hasta pronto!