Found growing under an Ash tree – check
Stem growing off-center – check
Olive to yellow-browm irregularly shaped cap – check
Yellowish flesh – check
Pore tubes shallow, resembling gills radiating from stalk- double check

My Peterson Field Guide to Mushrooms calls this a Shallow Pore Bolete.
My National Audubon Society Field Guide to Mushrooms uses the common name Ash Tree Bolete.
Both guides use the scientific name – Boletinellus merulioides but MushroomExpert.com uses Gyrodon merulioides

Ash Tree Bolete – Gyrodon merulioides

Although this fungus is associated with ash tress it is really having an affair with an aphid that has a taste for ash. The leaf curl ash aphid – Prociphilus fraxinifolii, (Meliarhizophagus fraxinifolii) occurs on the roots and leaves of ash trees in a mutually beneficial association with the ash tree bolete. The mushroom provides protection by surrounding the aphid within a knot of mycelium while the fungus uses the aphid’s honeydew as a nutrient source.

ash tree bolete pore surface

Ash tree boletes are edible according to nearly every guide I’ve read. Only one source described them as inedible. Another source mentioned them as ‘good’ when young. You’ll have to be the judge – I haven’t put fungus in my mouth since I stopped sucking on my toes.

- from cute as a button to old and dried up photographs

I’ll break my long blogging pause with something I saw back on May 20th.

Polyporus squamosus

It was right under Stew’s paws. A young Dryad’s Saddle, cute as a button was emerging from a block of sugar maple firewood (yet to be split).

A couple more were hiding in the back. At this stage of growth they certainly don’t look like a polypore shelf fungus.

Two days later and they definitely had the look.

One more day and the fungus had nearly shelved out completely.

Another day and they were more than a handful.

Today – July 1 – they look like I feel.

no fret, the old dried out feeling goes away after a couple of brews, a good dinner and a nap before bedtime.

These frosty looking mushrooms were found growing (dormant) on some maple firewood. They’re one of the most widely distrubted mushrooms in the world and can be found on every continent except Antarctica. My National Audubon Society Field guide to Mushrooms (north america) states their range extends from Maine south to Tennessee and west to North Dakota while the MushroomExpert.com only said they can be found from sea to shining sea. What their real range is in North America is still a mystery to me. All I know is they are up the wazoo around here, I find them on all sorts of dead hardwoods throughout the area.

Common Split Gill Mushroom – Schizophyllum commune

They look like tiny bracket / shelf mushrooms and can be found year round. They range in size from about a quarter inch to nearly 2 inches across. My field guides describe them as ‘hairy’ but I think they look more like frost crystals than anything else.

I’m not entirely sure if these are actually perennial mushrooms or not. They dry out when moistened they unroll their gills and begin shedding spores. I’m not sure if it’s a purly reactive response or they actually revive and produce new spores. I’ve read that they may remain dry for 50 years and still shed spores when moistened. The ones I found were dry and brittle the other day, after a day of rain they were soft and pliable.

A half inch specimen was sacrificed to get some scale.

The gills are more like folds that are split down the middle. I can see how the underside can be described as hairy.

I also read that these can be nasty. This fungus has been known to cause human mycosis in a few cases involving immunoincompetent people, especially children. In one case a child had fruiting bodies growing in her sinuses. And here I was worrying about the stuff growing between my toes.

…and now for something completely different to make us all feel better.

Yep, it snowed yesterday but it melted almost as fast as it came down. I sit by the window where the fuel oil filler pipes come out of the basement. Stewy has learned to perch on the filler cap and scratch the window screen when he wants to be let in. That’s better than Itty Bitty (see sidebar pic) who jumps up from the ground and clings to the screen.

Did I mention I need to get a new screen every spring?