Katie's Sightings

Local Mushrooms!

Coral Mushroom — unknown genus/speciesMushrooms have been popping up everywhere since we got some rain. As usual I haven't learned to identify many of them yet, just too busy, but here are photos of the most recent “uprisals!”unknown fungiQuestionable Stropharia — Stropharia ambiguaunknown fungiHawk Wing — Sarcodon imbricatum

My friend Diane found these mushrooms near her home in Pike and took these photos! I’ve never seen this kind before! They are quite beautifully marked! They are also a large “toothed” fungi! What a find!

To reproduce, mushrooms produce spores. Basidia are the microscopic, club-shaped, spore-bearing structures in mushrooms. There are three main structures in mushrooms that contain the basidia; gills, pores and teeth! Most people are familiar with the gill structure pictured below left. Pores are found on Bolete fungi and others, and are the small holes (actually tubes) on the smooth underside of the mushroom cap, pictured below center. Teeth are found on Lion's Mane fungi as well as others, and look like tiny hanging icicles, pictured below right. Thousands and thousands of basidia are arranged along the outside edges of the gills, along the insides of the tubes that end in pores, and on the outside of the teeth!Mushroom gills, pores, and teeth

Your questions and comments are appreciated. Please feel free to email me at northyubanaturalist@gmail.com. Thanks!