Category Archives: Fungi and Lichens

Devil’s Stinkhorn (Phallus rubicundus)

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Devil’s Stinkhorn

Photo by LizInMpls

Devil’s Stinkhorn (Phallus rubicundus) is native to the subtropical region of northern Africa, Australia, South America, northern Mexico and southern United States. It has spread throughout the eastern United States, probably in wood chip mulch imported from those regions. It is now common east of the Great Plains. It is found from spring through summer in lawns and gardens, especially where wood chip mulch is used. It grows on the ground, in wood chips or sawdust piles, singly or in groups.

The fruiting body at first is whitish to pale brown and egg-shaped, and resembles a puffball partially submerged in the ground. Inside the “egg” there is a gelatinous layer, a spore mass, and all of the fully-formed parts of the mature stinkhorn. When conditions are right the “egg” ruptures and expands rapidly. In one or two days it produces a distinctly phallic structure with a stalk and thimble-like head. The rapid expansion is possible because all of the parts are fully formed and compressed inside the “egg”, and because the individual cells elongate, rather than new cells being produced. As the stinkhorn expands the gelatinous layer mixes with the spore mass producing a shiny, putrid slime that covers the cap. The foul-smelling slime is irresistible to flies, which feed on it, lay their eggs in it, and transfer spores when they fly to other stinkhorns.

http://www.minnesotaseasons.com/Fungi/Devils_Stinkhorn.html

Green Reindeer Lichen (Cladonia mitis)

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Green Reindeer Lichen

Photo by Luciearl

Reindeer lichens are the primary source of food in winter for caribou (reindeer), hence the common name Reindeer Lichens. They are long lived, surviving 100 years or more, and they are slow growing. A clump crushed by a footprint may take decades to recover.

Green Reindeer Lichen (Cladonia mitis) is very common in Alaska, throughout Canada, and across the northern United States except in the Pacific northwest. It is especially common in white spruce and black spruce forests. It forms dense mats with other reindeer lichens that can form a continuous carpet on the forest floor. A single clump often contains more than one species of reindeer lichen.

Green Reindeer Lichen is similar in appearance to Gray Reindeer Lichen (Cladonia rangiferina). The terminal branchlets of the former spread in all directions, while those of the latter are swept in one direction.

http://www.minnesotaseasons.com/Fungi/Green_Reindeer_Lichen.html

Hygroscopic Earthstar (Astraeus hygrometricus)

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Hygroscopic Earthstar

Photo by Luciearl

Hygroscopic Earthstar (Astraeus hygrometricus) is a late season, small or medium-sized mushroom—small when closed, medium-sized when open. The fruiting body looks like a puffball at first. As it matures the outer layer of the case splits into 6 to 15 pointed rays, exposing a nearly spherical spore sac. When fully expanded, it can be 3″ or more in diameter. When moist, the rays arch backward to the ground, raising the spore sac, and facilitating distribution of the dust-like spores. The rays sometimes have a pale foreground with dark cracks and crevices, appearing like dried, cracked mud in a dry lake bed. In dry conditions they fold back over the spore sac and become hard. At maturity, the spore case ruptures through a pore at the top, and the spores are disbursed by the wind.

Hygroscopic Earthstar has a global distribution. It is common in North America, Central America, and Europe, and has been collected in Africa, Asia, and Australia. In the United States it is common in the Great Lakes and coastal states, uncommon in Minnesota.

Hygroscopic Earthstar is similar in appearance to true earthstars but it is not even closely related. It is an example of convergent evolution, where species of different lineages evolve similar features. It is identified by the following characteristics: the rays are hygroscopic, expanding in moist conditions and covering the spore case in dry conditions; the upper ray surface is often pale with dark cracks and crevices; the lower ray surface is covered with matted, blackish, hair-like fibers; the spore case is stalkless, roughened by numerous particles, and ruptures through a single, poorly defined pore at the top; and the spores are very large, but this can only be seen under a microscope.

http://www.minnesotaseasons.com/Fungi/Hygroscopic_Earthstar.html

Purple-bloom Russula (Russula mariae)

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Purple-bloom Russula

Photo by Kirk Nelson

Purple-bloom Russula (Russula mariae) is a medium-sized gill mushroom. It is common and widespread in deciduous and mixed woodlands and forests of North America east of the Rocky Mountains. It is found from June through October, singly or in groups, on the ground near hardwoods. It obtains its nutrients from the rootlets of oak and other hardwood trees.

Purple-bloom Russula is easily recognized by the flat, dry, velvety or powdery, purple cap.

http://www.minnesotaseasons.com/Fungi/Purple-bloom_Russula.html

Mica Cap (Coprinellus micaceus)

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Mica Cap

Mica Cap (Coprinellus micaceus) is a very common mushroom in Europe, Asia, Africa, and North and South America. In the United States is seen from coast to coast. It occurs from April through October in forests and woodlands, in suburbs, in urban areas, and sometimes indoors. It grows in dense clusters on decaying stumps and logs, and sometimes on the ground on buried wood.

When young, it is dome-shaped, yellowish-brown, and covered with glistening particles. As it matures it flattens out, the particles wash away, and the cap becomes gray at the margins. As the mushroom ages the cap turns black, the margins become tattered, and the gills dissolve into an inky black liquid that drops to the ground.

http://www.minnesotaseasons.com/Fungi/Mica_Cap.html

Orange-gilled Waxy Cap (Humidicutis marginata)

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Orange-gilled Waxy Cap

Orange-gilled Waxy Cap (Humidicutis marginata) is a medium-sized, easily identified mushroom. It is widespread in North America but not common in the Midwest and northeast. It grows on the ground in humus, sometimes on very rotten wood, in coniferous, deciduous, and mixed forests. It may be found singly, scattered, or in small groups. It is edible but insubstantial and watery.

Three varieties are recognized; var. marginata, with an orange cap; var. concolor, with a yellow cap, more common in the northeast; and var. olivacea, with a olive-colored cap, more common in the west. The variety in most common in Minnesota is identified by the bright orange color; the cap that appears watery when wet but is never slimy; and the orange gills that retain their orange color even long after the cap has faded to yellow.

http://www.minnesotaseasons.com/Fungi/Orange-gilled_Waxy_Cap.html

Comb Tooth (Hericium coralloides)

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Comb Tooth

Photo by Margot Avey

There are sixteen species of Hericium fungus, four of which occur in North America, three in Minnesota. Comb Tooth (Hericium coralloides) is by far the most common of the three. It is fairly common in northeastern United States and in Minnesota. It is found in late summer and fall in deciduous woodlands and forests, on fallen logs, branches, and dead stumps of hardwoods.

The fruiting body is a loose, open cluster of delicate branches. It is white when fresh, becoming creamy-white to buff or yellowish-tan with age. The branches are themselves again intricately branched and have rows of evenly-spaced spines, like the teeth of a comb, that hang downward. The spines are the spore-producing structures of this fungus, corresponding to the gills on many mushrooms (Agaricales). The flesh is white and edible when young and soft, but the spines become brittle with age.

Comb Tooth is similar in appearance to the other two Hericium species in Minnesota. It is the only Hericium that is intricately branched and has teeth no more than ⅜″ long.

http://www.minnesotaseasons.com/Fungi/Comb_Tooth.html

Crown-tipped Coral (Artomyces pyxidatus)

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Crown-tipped Coral

Photo by Kirk Nelson

Crown-tipped Coral (Artomyces pyxidatus) is very common and widespread eastern North America. It grows alone or in groups on dead, well rotted wood of hardwoods, especially aspen, willow, maple, and cottonwood. It can be found throughout Minnesota from spring through fall. It is edible but tough and stringy. It has a peppery taste when raw that goes away when cooked.

The fruiting body is a candelabra-like profusion of whitish, upright branches with a tiny, crown-like tip. The branches turn brownish as they age. Occasionally, the tips of the branches are brown.

Crown-tipped Coral looks superficially similar to many club and coral fungi. It is identified by its growing on wood; the whitish or yellowish color when young; and the crown-like depression at the branch tips with 3 to 6 points.

http://www.minnesotaseasons.com/Fungi/Crown-tipped_Coral.html

Gabled False Morel (Gyromitra brunnea)

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Gabled False Morel

Photo by Kirk Nelson

Morel mushrooms (Morchella spp.) are some of the best known and most sought after wild mushrooms in North America. They are particularly abundant in the upper Midwest. They are edible, considered delicious, and are hunted for in deciduous woodlands every spring. False morels (Gyromitra spp.) look superficially similar and appear at the same time of year in roughly the same areas. However, false morels are poisonous. They contain the chemical gyromitrin, which is metabolized in the body into a volatile chemical used as a rocket propellant.

Gabled False Morel (Gyromitra brunnea) is the most common false morel in Minnesota and Wisconsin. It is found in the spring, alone or in groups, on the ground under hardwood trees. The cap is tan to reddish-brown, 2″ to 4″ wide, and loosely wrinkled. It is usually saddle-shaped or winged, divided into 2 or 3 strongly projecting lobes that are fused to each other.

http://www.minnesotaseasons.com/Fungi/Gabled_False_Morel.html

Snow Morel (Gyromitra gigas)

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Snow Morel

Snow Morel (Gyromitra gigas) is a common early mushroom in forests of North America. It is called a “false morel” due to its similarity in appearance and seasonality to true morels. It is found in the spring and early summer alone, scattered, or in groups, on the ground or on rotten wood, under coniferous or hardwood trees, often poking through leaf litter. It is saprobic, obtaining nutrients from rotting wood, and might also be mycorrhizal, having a mutually beneficial relationship with the tiny rootlets of trees. It may exhibit both traits at different parts of its life cycle.

Snow Morel is edible if sautéed but not edible when raw. Some authors suggest that it be avoided due to its similarity in appearance to the poisonous False Morel (Gyromitra esculenta).

Snow Morel is identified by the squarish, blocky, convoluted cap that is compact and rarely has projecting lobes; and the massive, ribbed or longitudinally wrinkled stem that is often mostly or completely hidden by the closely appressed cap.

http://www.minnesotaseasons.com/Fungi/Snow_Morel.html