Mushroom Monday Waiting for Spring

Here's a few more 2019 mushroom finds for this #mushroommonday by @balticbadger and for the mushroom community hive-166168 by @qwerrie

Here is some Ductifera pululahuana, aka white jelly roll. I read somewhere that this stuff actually is a parasite to other fungi. If there is some older fungi in a broken down log this jelly fungi attaches itself to it and feeds off of it. There is a commercially grown version of this slime mold called cloud fungi. It is used mostly in Asia for soups and is rather bland and tasteless.

This is a batch of ink caps towards the end of their cycle. They basically melt into a black goo. This goo helps spread the spores. The common name for these is scaly ink cap the latin name is Coprinopsis variegata. These are edible so long as you don't have any alcohol for a day or two after eating them. Somehow the alcohol brings out a toxin in them causing vomiting and stomach aches.

Here's a bit of false turkeytail. This type of fungi gets parisitized by the jelly fungi in the first photo. This can be used for commercial farming of the cloud fungi. There are also some antibacterial properties if these are turned into a tincture. Though it is so weak that it is better to just use alcohol.
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The bottom of false turkeytail has smooth pores vs. rough pores like true turkeytail.

Now for a random pitcher plant. I find these in spring growing everywhere in the woods.

A random toad trying to act camouflaged. These guys are everywhere when I go mushroom hunting.

Here is a lovely fall bouquet of summer oysters. They are almost too old to harvest, any longer and they would start drying out.

Here's what the bottom of the oysters look like. As they get older the stems get really tough so it takes a bit of surgery in the kitchen to find the best parts that are still edible.

A mystery shroom. I thought this might be an amanita of sorts but it could also be a parasol or some other strange mushroom.

It lacks a ring along the stem like an amanita or parasol usually have. Also the stem seems too smooth to be either. Another mystery, perhaps it can only be identified by spore print or chemical analysis.

Finally a teeny tiny cricket on top of a mystery shroom @whatisnew :-) this guy is too small to make it into #butterflyday :-)
Happy #mushroommonday