I’m back. For me, March brings madness. Not basketball, mind you, it’s more the Mad Hatter type. It’s been a long (but unusually warm) winter and I’m a bit late starting my treatment. Nothing like fresh air, some moss and discovering a couple of other oddities while wandering about to make me feel better.

March Moss

A moss covered rock doing a hillside imitation. I should bring it home. It’s big enough to make a very nice miniature moss garden yet not so large I couldn’t budge it.

Shrink enough to step into the photo and enter an alien world.

Water droplets cling to what looks like the heads and necks of some strange bird.

immature spore pods of an unidentified moss

Fire moss spore pods on another rock.

Leafy lichen looks like lettuce. Not really, alliteration got a hold on me. This lichen looks more like some kind of terrestrial seaweed. Is it a landscape or salad?

Like most Klingon delicacies this one is best eaten alive.

It’s not really odd but finding growing mushrooms during March isn’t an everyday experience in the north country. Normal day temps should be in the 30s with nights going into the teens. But even in February, Velvet Foot Mushrooms will grow if there’s a brief warm spell.

Velvet foot mushrooms are often found on dead Elm trees when the bark begins to separate from the wood. Those that grow in the crevice are tiny while those that break free can grow much lager. I’ve found them nearly 3 inches across. Those in the photo are about a half inch across. It is hard to make out but they are growing in a notch started and abandoned by a woodpecker.

If you want a photo that makes it clear that a woodpecker was at work, this one should do. The hole is about 2 feet long.

When finished I hope it looks like this.

Let the bold text trick you into thinking literally.

Cat chainsaw carving

Now see the reality.

Of all the chainsaw carvings I’ve ever seen, this one is my favorite. Lucky me, it’s just down the road and I get to see it often as I drive by.

Every reference says green. I say blue. Who are you going to believe?
Them, me or your lying eyes.

Green Stain Fungus – Chlorociboria aeruginascens

This is a tiny stalked mushroom that stains the wood it’s growing in. Field guides state it prefers Oak but I’ve seen it on just about every type of tree (dead and rotting) around here except Cedar and Pine. I’ve been trying for over a year to get a photo of one in profile. Getting a focused photo of the stem always seemed beyond me until the other day. I got lucky and got two.

I wanted the stem shots to help confirm the identity. There are other very close species and this one is supposed to have an off set stem. These look like abstract sculptures to me. I don’t know what might have craved/chewed the holes in them but whatever it was it had to be very small.

I didn’t need any luck finding any of these cup mushrooms, they were all over the place. The rotting logs they were growing on had soaked up plenty of the recent rains giving them the moisture needed to develop the fruiting bodies. Slime molds, particularly yellow fuzz cone slime are out in force too. To get a perspective of the blue stain’s size – the orange balls are about the size of a pin head.

…and now for something not completely different

A Bolete of some sort that’s being eaten. Not all Boletes are edible and I doubt any slug feast is going to make me believe this one is.

A closer look shows just how yummy the whole thing is. It also shows the pore surface and the tubes behind them in the slug eaten hole. (upper left)

Jeeze the last half of this post turned out pretty slimy.

More mushrooms for a fungi Friday.
I’m still trying to catch up with my mushroom finds of the last few days. Here are two more.

Bear’s Head Tooth Mushroom – Hericium americanum

Bear’s head? tooth? – I don’t see a bear’s head no matter how big my beer goggles are. Teeth up the wazoo maybe but why the singular? Maybe it’s the size, these mushroom get pretty big. This one was more than a handful and probably weighted over a pound.

A better common name is Lion’s Mane Mushroom – I can see that without getting half in the bag. Still better would be to call it the Icicle mushroom, but I’m the only one so far that uses that name.

They grow on old hardwood stumps and logs and occasionally from wounds in living trees. This one was growing on an old maple log. They are considered choice eating. The flesh is white and firm but don’t ask me how they taste. Like I’ve said countless times before – I do not put fungus in my mouth.

Yummy looking? Don’t forget to cook it before you take a bite.

Now here’s a mushroom that is aptly named. One look and you can see why.

Eyelash Cup Mushroom – Scutellinia scutellata

These are small orange cups with eyelash like hairs on the cup’s edge. They usually grow in groups on dead wood and sometimes on damp ground. Here’s a pic that gives a bit a scale. They’re smaller than Lincoln’s head on a penny.

eyelash cup fungus

Looking closer you can see the eyelashes. No point in a staring contest – they never blink.

I’ve got more photos of mushrooms on the way. Next time I hope to have some Yellow Fairy Cups to go with the Blue Stain I’m planning to put on the screen. Meanwhile I’m back off to the woods. Right now it’s prime time for mushroom hunting in the North Country of NY.