Mushroom Monday - Hexagonal Polypore and Ink Cap Mess

Here's a few more unpublished mushroom finds from this past year for this #mushroommonday by @balticbadger

Here's a hexagonal polypore aka Polyporus alveolaris. I found this early spring and they tend to stand out amongst the greenery with their bright yellow color.

Here's why its called hexagonal polypore. They have interesting almost hexagon shaped pores in a nice fractal pattern. Technically this mushroom has some medicinal antifungal properties but they have to be isolated in a lab so unless you are a scientist it would be impossible to make much use of this mushroom.

Here are a bunch of melting ink caps. They essentially turn into a black goo once they get old. This melting process helpes spread pores around. When these are young they are edible. The only drawback is you have to abstain from alcohol since there is a compound in them that is toxic when mixed with alcohol. You basically get a stomache ache and vomiting.

Here's a more fresh batch, though still too old to eat.

This is an example of when ink caps should be harvested. At this age they smell like radishes and have a nice firm texture. Be sure to only harvest them in clean areas as these mushrooms can pick up contaminates like heavy metals from previous industrial sites.

Finally here's a mystery bolete. I still haven't identified it. It is growing from wood which is a bit rare for boletes and it has a thin stem also a bit uncharacteristic for boletes. It has pores like a bolete though. Who knows if I'll ever figure out what it is. Happy #mushroommonday

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