When walking out the front door of my house, I noticed this conspicuous organism. This large mushroom can be found in Britain, Iran, Ireland, North America, Australia, and New Zealand. It appears from Summer to Fall, more specifically July to November. It is called the Horse Mushroom, because it frequently appears near stables, loving the manure-rich soil.

Often seen on lawns and fruiting during rainy weather, it can be larger than most other mushroom species found on lawns. The gills of Horse Mushroom start out pale pink and darken to chocolate brown as the spores mature. When cut or broken, the mushroom has a pleasant, anise-like odor which is a distinctive trait for foragers and mushroom enthusiasts trying to distinguish it from poisonous lookalikes.

This mushroom typically grows solitary or in small clusters and may form fairy rings (circular arrangements of mushrooms resulting from the progressive colonization of a central underground mycelial network) over time under the right conditions.

Horse Mushroom is a saprobic fungus, playing a critical role in decomposing organic material in rich soils. It tends to emerge from the ground with a partially closed cap that gradually expands.

It is seldom observed in forests or overly shaded environments, as it strongly prefers open and sunlit areas with abundant grass or organic detritus. Human-modified environments like sports fields, parks, and suburban lawns can also provide suitable habitats, especially where soil composition is favorable and not heavily treated with chemicals.

This fungus is highly regarded among edible wild mushrooms thanks to its large size (up to one foot in diameter for the shell cap), digestibility, and culinary flexibility. Its morphology closely resembles cultivated button mushrooms, but it offers a more potent flavor profile and distinct aroma, particularly when freshly harvested from nutrient-rich grasslands.

Third Eye Herp
E-mail

While hiking in a California forest in search of salamanders, this brightly colored mushroom caught my eye. The caps have concentric color zones ranging from bright orange to reddish-brown, fading to cream with age.

This saprophytic (feeding on dead and decaying organic matter) species has thin, leathery, shelf-like fruiting bodies that grow on dead or decaying wood. It grows densely, often from gaps in bark, and can fuse laterally, sometimes hosting algae or being parasitized by jelly fungi (as was the case here, with Witches’ Butter).

Crowded Parchment are characterized by thin, tough, leathery caps that often overlap and fuse into tangled masses, resembling dried parchment or ruffled petticoats on wood.

This fungus helps to decompose dead hardwoods such as oak, beech, and maple, and plays a key role in breaking down lignin and recycling nutrients in forest ecosystems. Unlike many shelf fungi, the underside is smooth, lacking gills or pores, which is a key identification feature.

This was a welcome and colorful find on an otherwise rainy day in California.

Third Eye Herp
E-mail

While at the entrance of Snake Road in southern Illinois, I noticed a few logs covered with fungi. These compact, stalkless, white mushrooms are sometimes mistaken for small Oyster Mushrooms. They often grow in loose or dense clusters, forming shelf-like groups.

Their shell-shaped caps range from 1/2 to 1-5/8 inches wide. Unlike oyster mushrooms, they are not very fleshy. The caps are directly attached to the dead hardwood substrate.

Flat Oysterling is commonly found growing on decaying logs, stumps, and other dead wood, particularly in deciduous forests dominated by Oak, Elm, and Maple Trees. Fruiting typically occurs from Spring to Fall, with peak abundance in late Summer and early Fall.

Fungi play a crucial role in ecosystems as decomposers, nutrient recyclers, and symbiotic partners, significantly contributing to soil health, biodiversity, and the overall balance of ecological systems. This one was a neat example that wasn’t at all hard to find.

Third Eye Herp
E-mail

While exploring the edge of a swamp in southern Illinois, this mushroom caught my attention. The majority of polypores don’t have gills, rather they have smooth pore surfaces underneath. But, there always has to be one fungus that refuses to play by the rules, and the Gilled Polypore takes up that calling and flaunts it.

From above, Gilled Polypore looks for all the world like Turkeytail Mushroom with its multi-colored, fuzzy, zoned cap. But flip it over and you will find that this little polypore has gills.

Gilled Polypores favor hardwood logs as their habitat. They are most commonly seen growing on dead or decaying tree trunks, stumps, or roots. Despite the suggestion of its species name betulina, its growth is not confined to birch trees. It grows scattered or clustered in overlapping shelves.

This mushroom prefers humid climates and is typically found near bodies of water like streams or rivers. It can be found throughout North America, Europe, and Asia. Gilled Polypore is also cultivated in controlled environments for commercial production.

Fungus 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.

In addition to its ecological benefits, Gilled Polypore is used medicinally in some cultures. It is believed to be a natural immune system booster and has been used for centuries as a traditional remedy for various ailments.

Third Eye Herp
E-mail

Sometimes you don’t have to look far to find cool things in nature. While leaving the house, I saw this unusual-looking organism sprouting up in several spots in the mulch near our house. Mushrooms and fungi play vitally important roles in nature and to humans.

Brown Cups look just like their name, as they are brown inside and out and their cup-like structure is usually just a few inches across and high. The sides of this mushroom are quite fragile and are often seen in a caved-in type state. This mushroom is also known as Pig’s Ears.

Most often seen in Spring, the cup shape is designed to propel raindrops into splashing its spores out of the cup. Additionally, the curvature enables wind currents to blow the spores out in as a way to distribute them a distance from the fruiting body. It is quite an experience to tap a cup; if the spores are sufficiently mature, it is possible to see millions of them eject into the air from the inside surface like a puff of fine cigar smoke.

Few of us see the entire life cycle of mushrooms, since most of it takes place underground or beneath the bark of dead or living trees. Before developing the mushroom structure, the fungus lives as a mycelium, a mat-like or netlike network of filaments infusing a patch of soil or wood. When conditions are right, the mycelium develops a fruiting structure, a mushroom, which emerges from the ground or the tree.

There are over 200 hundred species of Cup Mushrooms and they tend to be interesting in color and shape. They frequently resemble cups or saucers. The Orange Peel Fungus resembles a discarded orange rind. They may also be vividly colored, like the Scarlet Cup, which is often one of the first signs of spring in the temperate regions where it grows.

Mushrooms are a lot like plants, but they lack chlorophyll and have to take nutrients from other materials. Mushrooms are neither plants nor animals. They constitute their own kingdom: the Fungi. Common Brown Cup grows solitarily or in dense clusters on soil or on well-decayed logs. It is found in Europe, North America, and Iceland.

Third Eye Herp
E-mail

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.

Third Eye Herp
E-mail

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.”

Third Eye Herp
E-mail

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.

Third Eye Herp
E-mail

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.

Third Eye Herp
E-mail

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.

Third Eye Herp
E-mail