Mushroom Monday - Black Mass

Here's a few 2019 finds for this #mushroommonday by @balticbadger and a post for hive-166168 by @qwerrie

Here's a spooky little black mass being conducted by miniature witches. This is called chocolate tube slime mold. It is easy to overlook as it is very tiny. But once you know what to look for you can find it fairly easily. Look for dead logs without bark that are falling apart. Sadly there is no culinary or medical use for this stuff it just breaks down rotting wood in the forest.

There is a culinary use for this crown tipped coral. This is my favorite tasting mushroom but it is hard to find enough for a meal. I find it on the dead barkless logs as well in early spring or late fall.

Another small patch of crown tipped coral.

Here's a bigger old batch, its already too old to eat at this point. Once it gets darker brown branches it tends to taste bitter. It is really tricky finding it at just the right time to harvest, gotta go out often in spring. It has a nice angelhair pasta texture with a unique rich mushroom taste. I wish this could be sold commercially but the growing conditions are too tricky to make it happen.

Now for a messy old amanita of some kind. As a mushroom hunter it is common to find many examples of strange shrooms past their prime. They become unidentifiable. So I try and take note where they grew and maybe next year I will find them in their prime.

Another mess, I suspect this might be a type of brittlegill.

Now for these strange brownish mushrooms. They remind me of oyster mushrooms. Oysters don't really grow separate like this and tend to be larger. Another identification conundrum.

This is a baby waxcap I suspect it might be Hygrocybe chlorophana, but at this size who know what latin variant it might become.

Here's some purple crust fungi growing on top of another polypore. The latin name for purple crust fungi is Chondrostereum purpureum. Its fairly common to find fungi growing on top of fungi, they are cannibalistic.

Finally here's my last batch of lion's mane. Sadly a cold snap caused the heater to run more often and it got dried out before it could grow any larger. Still edible though, just a small amount for a tiny snack.

Happy #mushroommonday