Mycology

I kept a Lion's mane petri dish stored in the fridge for well over a year.

I decided to make an attempt at refreshing it by transferring into fresh petri dishes. After a week I noticed some strong mycelium growth.

After inoculating a grain jar with one of the cultures, I decided to have a look under the microscope to double check, just in case.. And that's when I noticed a morphology that I had never seen before. It looked nothing like Lion's Mane. The full length of the mycelium is covered with these pegs with a sphere at the end.

After some searching, I am almost convinced that this is a Verticillium sp. - a new contaminant for me!

I then checked all of the petri dishes and they are all this same fungus. So, time to get a new fresh culture 😅

Species is something like Subcana. Grey Mycena are hard to differentiate.

I see these on the disc golf course all the time.

These have beautiful reddish brown pores on the bottom

Edit: After a bit of research and asking around, it seems that this is likely Cystolepiota bucknallii

Hi! I came across this strange little thing last week and have been struggling to ID it. I'm hoping that maybe someone here can help.

It was found growing in the soil of a mixed forrest, lots of birch, elder, and larch, 10km or so north of the German alps.

Maybe the photo isn't super clear, but the stem is not hollow. And one very distinct feature is that it stank like gasoline or hot plastic. The smell was strong and lingered on my hands long after handling it.

Thank you!

I found this textbook Amanita muscaria while searching for Lactarius deliciosus. There was a huge patch of them. We also found some Tricholoma equestre and a bunch of Russula

More pictures available if needed. I broke a few open that were in rougher shape and they are solid white and spongy all the way through. Found in open woods in West Kentucky.

Thinking about frying these up and seeing how they taste but want a bit more assurance that I'm not taking a huge risk doing so. I couldn't find these in my National Audubon Society Field Guide so I'm a bit reluctant to take the chance.

Each one is no bigger than a couple inches.

Found in Cascadia/PNW in mid-August.

If it is indeed chicken of the woods (ie laetiporus), I'm curious as to which species.

Cross-posts:

• https://sh.itjust.works/post/23697229

They looked dark, and ominous. So I snapped em.

Looked cute, colours lovely, had to snap it.

Scavenged these in the woods of NW Ontario