Western Amethyst Laccaria

Posted on May 30, 2025 by tspuckler

While exploring Mount Hamilton in Central California, I had a truly fun fungi find. While lifting a piece of corrugated metal in search of snakes, this purple organism caught my eye. Its habitat is pine forests, it seems to especially prefer living under Douglas Firs.

This species can be recognized by its deep purple cap, thick purple gills, and its long, shaggy to grooved stem, as well as by their white spores. The color of this mushroom, except the gills, fades fast as it loses moisture. In fact, unless you find this fungus when very fresh, often the only purple you see on it is in the gills.

Fungi like this mushroom play a vital role in ecosystems by acting as decomposers, nutrient cyclers, and mutualists. They break down organic matter, release essential nutrients, and form beneficial relationships with plants and other organisms.

This was a neat and unexpected find on my California trip.

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Spiny Puffball

Posted on January 10, 2025 by tspuckler

While walking across the field of cut grass across the street from where I live, I noticed small white clusters of objects with an interesting texture on the ground. Puffballs are a type of fungus featuring a ball-shaped fruit body that (when mature) bursts on contact or impact, releasing a cloud of dust-like spores into the surrounding area.

Initially white in color, these puffballs turn a dark brown as they mature, at the same time changing from nearly round to somewhat flattened. Puffballs range widely in size and appearance — from tiny species that grow in clusters on wood, to large, terrestrial species growing in fairy rings in meadow.

The fruit bodies are edible when young, when the interior is white and firm and before it has turned into a powdery brown mass of spores. Laboratory tests have shown that extracts of the fruit bodies can inhibit the growth of several types of bacteria that are pathogenic to humans.

Spiny Puffball is usually found growing in tight clusters in grass, often in disturbed-ground areas like ditches – but also sometimes appearing on woodchips in landscaping areas. It is most often seen in late Summer and Fall. This species is widely distributed in North America.

With a Latin Name of Lycoperdon echinatum, the specific epithet echinatum comes from the Greek word echinos meaning “hedgehog” or “sea-urchin.”

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Golden Scalycap

Posted on November 27, 2024 by tspuckler

While hiking along the edge of a swamp in southern Illinois last month, these very colorful mushrooms with their golden yellow hues caught my eye.

This species is perhaps the most noticeable member of its genus. It grows in large clusters on live trees, snags, and logs of conifers and hardwoods – most commonly Beeches.

The cap is sticky when young, and bears dark brown or reddish-brown scales that contrast with the yellow cap color.

Having the scientific name Pholiota adiposa, Pholiota means “scaly” and adiposa comes from the Latin word “adeps” which means lard or grease in reference to the texture of the caps.

Like other mushrooms, Golden Scalycap serve as decomposers in ecosystems, breaking down organic matter from dead plants and animals and recycling nutrients back into the soil. They play a crucial role in the carbon cycle.

With its striking golden-brown caps and intricate scales, the Golden Scalycap presents a visual spectacle in an otherwise dark swamp and made for a neat encounter on my trip.

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Ringless Honey Mushroom

Posted on August 30, 2024 by tspuckler

This is an eye-catching organism that I saw while visiting Brecksville Reservation.

Ringless Honey Mushroom grows in clusters, often in large numbers, at the bases of trees, especially oaks. It is common in urban yards. Sometimes it looks like it’s growing right out of the ground, but it is actually growing from low stumps, roots, or other buried wood.

It is most commonly observed from September to November. It can be identified by its convex cap, which is then flattened, featuring a margin that is uplifted with age. The cap is yellow-brown to honey brown, and it lacks a ring on its stalk. There are at least 10 species of this fungus.

Ringless Honey Mushrooms exist most of the time as a network of cells (mycelium) penetrating the tissues of living trees, frequently killing their hosts by damaging the tree’s ability to transport water and nutrients. This particular species may be an exception, however, living on dead, not living, wood. When ready to reproduce, the mycelium forms mushrooms, which produce spores that are released to begin new mycelia elsewhere.

As the fruiting bodies (mushroom caps) begin to deteriorate, numerous insects swarm to them. The mushrooms provide food for a variety of small insects and other arthropods, which in turn become food for birds, salamanders, toads, and other animals.

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Multicolor Gill Polypore

Posted on November 22, 2023 by tspuckler

While looking for reptiles and amphibians in the woods in southern Illinois, I noticed this bracket fungus on a tree stump.

Multicolor Gill Polypore is widespread across Europe, Asia, and North and South America. In the United States it is very common from the East Coast to the Great Lakes states, south to Texas, and on the West Coast.

From the top, it looks very much like Turkeytail Mushroom, but by viewing the underside of the cap, there are gills instead of pores.

The “gills” of the multicolor gill polypore are actually radially arranged tubes that are forked and fused, which can make them look like gills. These tubes are tough and leathery, as opposed to true gills, which are more fragile.

This species exists as a network of fungal cells (mycelium) within rotting wood. The mycelium obtains nourishment by digesting the wood. When ready to reproduce, it develops the brackets outside of the wood, which are reproductive structures.

Multicolor Gill Polypore plays an important role in the ecosystem, breaking down dead wood and returning nutrients to the soil. This species also helps to recycle carbon and nitrogen, aiding in the growth of new plants and trees.

Mushrooms decorate nature the way wildflowers do, adding to our pleasure on hikes. Many mushrooms are most prominent in the fall, when wildflowers are winding down.

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Scarlet Cup

Posted on January 27, 2023 by tspuckler

While hiking in Hinckley Reservation, a bit of red on the forest floor caught my eye. This fungus is widely distributed in the Northern Hemisphere and has been found in Africa, Asia, Europe, North and South America and Australia.

Scarlet Cup grows on decaying sticks and branches in damp spots in wooded areas, generally buried under leaf litter or in the soil. The cup-shaped fruiting bodies are usually produced during the cooler months of Winter and early Spring.

The brilliant red interior of the cups (from which both the common and scientific names are derived) contrasts with their lighter-colored exterior. The edibility of this fungus is well established, but its small size, tough texture and insubstantial fruitings dissuade most people from collecting it.

Known scientifically as Sarcoscypha coccinea, the specific epithet coccinea is derived from the Latin word meaning “deep red.” The species is commonly known as Scarlet Elf Cup, Scarlet Elf Cap, or Scarlet Cup Fungus. Its cup-shaped fruit measures one to two inches across.

Fungi belong to their own kingdom and get their nutrients and energy from organic matter, rather than photosynthesis like plants. It is often just the fruiting bodies or “mushrooms,” that are visible to us, arising from an unseen network of tiny filaments called “hyphae.”

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Fairy Inkcap

Posted on October 7, 2022 by tspuckler

While looking for snakes in southern Illinois, I noticed a large number of tiny mushrooms at the base of a tree. This species derives its nutrients from decaying wood and is usually found on or near dead tree stumps or decaying logs.

These gregarious little fungi occur from early spring until the onset of winter, and they are at their most spectacular when the caps are young and pale – sometimes nearly pure white.

Common in Britain and Ireland and throughout Europe and North America, the Fairy Inkcap is truly a cosmopolitan mushroom, being found also in most parts of Asia and in South America and Australia.

For most types of inkcap mushroom, the gills and caps melt into an inky black ooze – which is what gives the inkcaps their common name. Though this is not a feature of the Fairy Inkcap.

Rather than melt into mush, the caps of the Fairy Inkcap remain brittle, and easily teared, hence their alternate common name of Trooping Crumble Cap.

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Witches’ Butter

Posted on November 26, 2021 by tspuckler

While walking along the edge of a cypress swamp in southern Illinois last month, some small, yellow, irregularly lobed, gelatinous masses caught my eye.

Witches’ Butter has fruiting bodies that are brain-like, sulfur yellow-to-pale yellow and have a gelatinous texture. It grows in masses on dead deciduous wood, especially oaks.

This fungi’s full-time job is to inhabit dead wood as a parasite that gets nourishment by digesting the tissues of an unrelated fungus (a crust-like fungus that is itself parasitizing and maybe killing the tree). Witches’ Butter is therefore a parasite of a parasite!

Witches’ Butter has a cosmopolitan distribution, having been recorded from Europe, North, Central, and South America, Africa, Asia, and Australia. Its fruit bodies are formed during wet periods throughout the year.

A type of Jelly Fungi, the investigation of the medicinal benefits of Jelly Fungi has revealed that they stimulate the immune system, reduce inflammation, lower cholesterol and are useful in the treatment of allergies and diabetes.

This fungus is also known as Yellow Brain, Golden Jelly Fungus and Yellow Trembler.

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Chanterelle

Posted on September 10, 2021 by tspuckler

While hiking at Hinckley Reservation, these eye-catching fungi attracted my attention. Their yellow-orange vase-shaped caps were hard to miss on the dark forest floor.

This is among the most popularly eaten species of wild mushrooms. There are many species of edible Chanterelle; the most well known is the Golden Chanterelle Mushroom.

They are often bright in color and funnel-shaped. On the underside, most species have gill-like ridges that run almost all the way down to their stem.

Chanterelles tend to grow in clusters in mossy coniferous forests. In addition to North America, they can be found in Eurasia and Africa.

They are mycorrhizal, which means they have a beneficial, symbiotic relationship with the roots of trees. In Ohio they tend to fruit anywhere from June to September.

The flavor of Chanterelles is often described as fruity or peppery. They’re excellent with meats, fish, or as an entrée topping. They’re also very popular with eggs or as a filling in crêpes.

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Hare’s Foot Inkcap

Posted on January 8, 2021 by tspuckler

Since the rain has started last week, our rock garden has filled with inkcaps. The small, umbrella-shaped fruit bodies (mushrooms) of the fungus grow in grass or woodchips and are short-lived, usually collapsing in a few hours.

This is an inkcap of woodland habitats, where it grows among twigs and leaf litter. Outside of its “natural habitat,” in parks and gardens, this little mushroom is common in flowerbeds covered in woodchip mulch.

Coprinopsis lagopus gets its common English name from the way the young “fur-like” fruiting body begins to come out of the ground before turning into a traditional-looking mushroom. this inkcap has a worldwide distribution, occurring on every continent except Greenland and Antarctica.

The slender, whitish stems are up to 5 inches long and very thin. When the fruit bodies are young and fresh, the caps are reddish brown and can glisten – especially if wet. As the mushroom matures, the outer edge of the cap turn a greyish color while the center remains reddish brown.

This is known as a saprobic species, meaning that it obtains nutrients by breaking down organic matter into simpler molecules. The cool shapes and intricate patterns of this fine, fragile fungus make it a welcome sight on a January day.

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Category Archives: Fungi

Western Amethyst Laccaria

Spiny Puffball

Golden Scalycap

Ringless Honey Mushroom

Multicolor Gill Polypore

Scarlet Cup

Fairy Inkcap

Witches’ Butter

Chanterelle

Hare’s Foot Inkcap