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.

I imagine most gardeners have seen this annual alien wildflower weed. I also imagine most gardeners lacking a proper name use a bit of “French’ when they refer to it. It is an extremely prolific seed producer that can send off thousands of tiny seeds on the wind in a single season. Since each one seems to germinate in my garden my ‘French’ also gets carried away on the breeze. So in an effort to clean up America’s air waves let me give you the proper name of this weed while I zip my lips.

Galinsoga cilata

When life gives you Galinsoga boil it. The plant is edible, so if it’s sitting in your garden saying bite me, do just that after boiling it in water for about 5 minutes. Supposedly it tastes like spinach but I can’t confirm it. What I can confirm is the plant’s hairy nature if you take a close look.

Quickweed is a member of the Daisy family. The flowers are tiny, about a quarter inch across and the 5 rays are divided into 3 lobes. They’re actually pretty if you can get past the weed bit.

The very tiny seeds are encapsulated with an attached pappus that allows them to be carried by the slightest breeze. It was a still day with little or no wind so it must have been my breath that kept blowing them off my finger.

…and now for something completely different

How about a face full of cat? Look out, Stewy is ready to leap.

From cats

Open fields and full sun usually come to mind when thinking about Goldenrods and Asters. One usually doesn’t think about going to the woods to them. But one would be wrong, both families have a member that lives in the shadows.

Zigzag Goldenrod – Solidago flexicaulis

AKA: Broad Leaved Goldenrod is smaller than it’s full sun cousins. It grows up to 3 feet high according to my field guides but I rarely see any over a foot high. Leaves are very broad, pointed at the tip and strongly tapered in the back.

The stems lend themselves to the common name – Zigzag. At each leaf attachment the stem angles off in an overall zigzag pattern.

Zigzag Goldenrod flowers generally have 3 – 4 rays. The flowers form small clusters in the upper leaf axils with a larger terminal cluster.

…and now for a little something else that grows in the woods. This plant to is reported to grow up to 3 feet tall but once again I’ve rarely seen one over a foot high.

Whorled Wood Aster – Aster acuminatus

From above it does look like the leaves grow in a whorl.

Looking from the side – the leaves are alternate and hardly spaced but definitely do not grow from the same spot in a true whorl. Also note this plant also has a zigzag stem.

The flowers are a bit different than the full sun Asters too.
They don’t have as many rays and they’re kind of floppy looking too.

It’s not that I ran out of mushrooms but I thought to get these into my wildflower collection before I forgot them. Besides they’re much easier to identify than the fungi I find.