Category Archives: Fungi and Lichens

Hen of the Woods (Grifola frondosa)

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Hen of the Woods

Photo by Cannon Valley Foraging

Hen of the Woods (Grifola frondosa) is one of the most easily recognized polypores of eastern North America. The numerous, overlapping, smoky-brown caps are reminiscent of a fluffed-up chicken, giving this mushroom its common name. It is found in deciduous woodlands, especially woodland edges, usually at the base of a dead or dying tree or stump. It appears in summer and fall as a large cluster of rosettes of numerous small, overlapping, fan-shaped caps rising from a single base. Tender young caps are edible after long, slow cooking.

Hen of the Woods is distinctive in appearance. A closely related species, Grifola umbellata, is similar in appearance but the caps are larger and lighter in color, and are attached near the center, not at or near the side. It is much less common.

http://minnesotaseasons.com/Fungi/Hen_of_the_Woods.html

Aspen Bolete (Leccinum insigne)

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Aspen Bolete

Aspen Bolete (Leccinum insigne) was first described in North America in 1966. In the summer and early fall it is found on the ground, widely scattered or in groups, in woods and woodland edges under aspen and possibly also under birch. The species name means “distinctive or outstanding” but the mushroom was named for the Italian soccer player Lorenzo Insigne. Most sources state that it is safe to eat, but it has recently been thought to cause gastrointestinal distress in some individuals.

Scaber stalk mushrooms can be easily identified to the genus, less easily to the species. All have whitish or pale stalks covered by numerous short, rough, projecting scales (scabers) that turn dark at maturity. Many are similar in appearance and are often misidentified as Red-capped Scaber Stalk (Leccinum aurantiacum), even in printed guides and on popular mushroom Websites. However, recent DNA analysis suggests that Red-Capped Scaber Stalk is a European species that does not occur in North America.

Aspen bolete is distinguished by the dry, orange or orangish cap that turns bluish-gray or purplish-gray when bruised or cut; the stalk that tuns blue at the base when cut; and its habit of growing under aspens.

http://minnesotaseasons.com/Fungi/Aspen_Bolete.html

Late Oyster Mushroom (Panellus serotinus)

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Late Oyster Mushroom

Late Oyster Mushroom (Panellus serotinus) is common, widespread, and aptly named. It appears in the late fall with the onset of cold weather. It is found singly or in overlapping groups on the trunk or a large branch of a dead and decaying tree. It usually occurs on a hardwood, especially black cherry, but occasionally also on a conifer.

There is often no stalk. When there is a stalk it is short, thick, and attached at the side. The cap is kidney-shaped or semi-circular. It is downy and often flushed with violet when young, becoming hairless and olive-green to yellowish-green as it ages, eventually turning yellowish-olive or light brown when mature. The edges are curled under at first but flatten out with age. The gills are yellowish or orangish but fade with age. It is edible but has a mediocre taste and becomes bitter as it ages.

http://minnesotaseasons.com/Fungi/Late_Oyster_Mushroom.html

Phomopsis gall on hickory (Phomopsis spp.)

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Phomopsis gall on hickory

There are at least 232 species of the fungus Phomopsis. Several of these produce bark galls on bitternut hickory. The galls are identical in appearance making identification of the associated species in the field impossible.

Spores are produced throughout the growing season and are spread by wind and rain splashes. It is believed that spores infect a host by entering a wound of a young twig. The fungus then spreads to branches and to the trunk. The galls do not kill the host but reduce vigor and girdle small branches causing dieback. Uninfected trees may occur near heavily infected ones.

Galls may occur singly or in clusters on the trunk and branches. They are woody, rough, more or less round swellings. They appear as tight clusters of nodules. They can be very small to 10″ in diameter. If cut open they reveal disorganized woody tissue but no insect chambers or tunnels.

http://minnesotaseasons.com/Fungi/Phomopsis_gall_on_hickory.html

Peeling Puffball (Lycoperdon marginatum)

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Peeling Puffball

Peeling Puffball (Lycoperdon marginatum) is a common and widespread, medium-sized puffball. It appears on the ground, individually, scattered, or in groups, usually in sandy soil. It is often found in the woods under deciduous or coniferous trees, but is also found in the open on roadsides and in waste places.

The skin is covered with short, erect spines that often aggregate in groups of 2 to 4 creating pyramid-shaped warts. As it ages, the outer, warty or spiny skin sloughs off in thick, irregular patches or chunks revealing the smooth, pale to dark brown inner skin below. When mature, a pore-like mouth develops at the top through which spores are released.

Peeling Puffball is distinguished by the outer skin that is covered with pyramidal warts and sloughs off in thick, irregular patches or chunks.

http://minnesotaseasons.com/Fungi/Peeling_Puffball.html

Witches’ Butter (Tremella mesenterica)

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Witches’ Butter

Photo by Heather Ellis

The cycle of nature dictates that dead trees, branches, and twigs in wooded areas become hosts to wood-rotting fungi. These fungi are saprobic, obtaining their nutrients from dead and decaying wood. Some of these fungi are themselves hosts to other fungi.

Witches’ Butter (Tremella mesenterica), a very common and widespread jelly fungus, parasitizes wood-rotting crust fungi in the genus Peniophora. It can be found during wet periods year-round but especially in late fall, singly or in groups, on logs, branches, and twigs of oaks and other hardwoods. The wood on which it is found may be fallen or still on the tree but is always dead and usually has the bark still attached.

When young and fresh the fruiting body is one or more stemless, gelatinous but tough, ¾″ to 4″ wide, 1″ to 2″ in height lobes and folds. The lobes are translucent, shiny, and pale orangish-yellow to bright yellowish-orange. When clustered, they fuse together and resemble an exposed brain. They are mostly water. In wet conditions they swell and lose shape, looking like a dollop of melting butter. When they begin to dry they become darker orange, more opaque, and smaller. In dry conditions they become dark orange, shriveled up, hard, and brittle. Sometimes they collapse into an inconspicuous film when they dry, but will revive with the next wet weather. It is not poisonous but cooking it will release the water and leave little to eat.

Witches’ Butter is distinguished from other jelly fungi by lobes that are thin, broad, stemless, yellowish-orange, shiny, folded, and brain-like in appearance when clustered; by its occurrence on logs, branches, and twigs of hardwoods; by its shriveling when dry; and by its host Peniophora.

http://minnesotaseasons.com/Fungi/Witches_Butter.html

True Tinder Polypore (Fomes fomentarius)

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True Tinder Polypore

Anyone who spends time in the woods in the northern half of North America is likely come across a hoof-shaped fungus growing on the side of a tree or log. One of the most common and widespread hoof fungi is True Tinder Polypore (Fomes fomentarius). It is usually found on birch on a live tree or a standing or fallen dead tree. An individual conk (the hoof-shaped fruiting body) can survive for years, even decades, forming a new ridge or furrow each year.

True Tinder Polypore gets its name from its most common usage, as tinder for starting fires. Otzi the Iceman, the 5,000-year-old mummy found in the Alps in 1991, was carrying four pieces of it.

This species can easily be confused with another birch-loving fungus, False Tinder Fungus (Phellinus igniarius). True Tinder Polypore is distinguished by the lighter, uncracked upper surface of older specimens; whitish margin of actively growing layer and underside; pore tubes that are not layered; and lack of white threads running through the cut flesh.

http://minnesotaseasons.com/Fungi/True_Tinder_Polypore.html

Smoky Polypore (Bjerkandera adusta)

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Smoky Polypore

Smoky Polypore (Bjerkandera adusta) is a widespread and fairly common bracket fungus. It is found in dense, overlapping rows or fused clusters on dead hardwoods. It is rarely found on conifers. It usually takes the form of bracket on the side of a tree or log but occasionally appears as a crust on the underside of a dead branch. It is found year-round but usually appears after fall rains.

The species name adjusta means scorched, and another common name for the mushroom is Scorched Bracket. This refers to the blackened margins on mature and older specimens, the most distinguishing feature of the mushroom when encountered in the field.

Smokey Polypore can easily be mistaken for other bracket fungi, including the much more common Turkey Tail. Smokey Polypore is distinguished by the weakly zoned upper surface in shades of gray and brown, the margins turning brown to black on mature and older specimens; and the gray underside of mature specimens.

http://minnesotaseasons.com/Fungi/Smoky_Polypore.html

Pear-shaped Puffball (Lycoperdon pyriforme)

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Pear-shaped Puffball

Pear-shaped Puffball (Lycoperdon pyriforme) is a small, common and widespread, pear-shaped puffball. While not the best known puffball, it is the most common one in northeast and Midwest North America. Unlike most puffballs, it grows on rotting wood. It is usually found in dense clusters on rotting logs or stumps. The clusters have been described as sometimes “as large as a loaf of bread.” The fruiting body is pear-shaped, up to 2″ tall, and sometimes almost as wide. It is edible when young and firm inside but relatively tasteless, becoming bitter with age.

Pear-shaped Puffball is distinguished from similar puffballs by its well-developed base; small size; habit of growing on rotting wood, not on the ground; conspicuous white threads at the base; and microscopic features of the spores.

http://minnesotaseasons.com/Fungi/Pear-shaped_Puffball.html

Thin-Walled Maze Polypore (Daedaleopsis confragosa)

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Thin-Walled Maze Polypore

Thin-Walled Maze Polypore (Daedaleopsis confragosa) is a common, widespread, bracket fungus. It is found year-round, alone or in groups, on logs and stumps of dead hardwood trees. It is rarely found on oaks or conifers, and rarely found on wounds of live trees.

The description of this fungus sounds similar to many bracket fungi. It is brownish or grayish, stalkless, fan-shaped to nearly round, thin, and has concentric rings (zones). The most distinguishing feature of this fungus is the elongated, maze-like pores on the underside with thin walls.

http://minnesotaseasons.com/Fungi/Thin-Walled_Maze_Polypore.html