Shining Candy Corn Ganoderma Tsugae

I believe I've solved a fungal mystery, and it makes me really happy because this is a favorite of mine, and now I love it in both early and mature stages.

On Tuesday, we saw all these fungal growths on a fallen tree.

I immediately knew I was "on to" something. Especially when I saw the ones on the bottom of the log

I saw these in the Adirondacks on the NCT hike. I called them 'Candy Corn' fungus.

At that time, I managed to determine that they are in the Ganoderma genus, but couldn't be certain what kind. Gano= shining, and Derma= skin. Shining skin fungus.

Now, I'm pretty sure this is the early growth of the Hemlock Polypore or Hemlock Varnish Shelf (because they are shiny as if they'd just been varnished). The log we saw Tuesday is a fallen hemlock, so that's a huge clue. And I know that the Hemlock Polypore is found in this area.

This is a young Ganoderma tsugae. Tsugae= hemlock. One thing for certain about just about all the mushrooms/fungi is that they can look very different at different stages.

So what's this look like when it's mature? I first encountered this one in 1998 in Wisconsin, where we nicknamed it the 'Rearview Mirror' fungus because they eventually grow out at an angle on a stalk. Doesn't look much like those candy corn, does it?

And here is the upper side of a beautiful mature one. It really does look like it's been varnished. And it usually grows on hemlock. Many of the polypores are named for their preferred wood to inhabit.

I love that I've figured this out, and I love the looks of this fungus in all its stages.

In other news, there's a Brown Thrasher flying around my yard, but I haven't been able to catch a picture. Did a good job of accomplishing computer tasks in the morning. Unloaded the concrete blocks and worked on gardens in the afternoon. Yeah me!

See Fun Guys Wear Brown

Little Humid Walk

  I finished some errands a little early for bell choir so I did a short walk in the woods by the Methodist Church. Very humid and weirdly warm for October. Lots of mushrooms! This is some polypore. Nothing special, but it was looking quite handsome.

Best find is another of the purple mushrooms. I'm pretty sure this is Heliotrope Webcap. Blotchy with yellow and really slimy. Cortinarius heliotropicus. Definitely not one of the purple ones I've shown you before. Second guess is Purple Coincap. Of course it seems to be right for some features of each but not all.

Here is the underside. No sign of the "web"- the remnant of the veil, but it may have dropped off.

How about a cute yellow one? I have no idea what this one is. Too many choices.

These mushrooms at the base of a tree are past their prime, but they almost look like flowers.

Got a nice picture of a black squirrel.

And the leaves are starting to change- quite late this year- the sassafras are getting yellow.

Methodist Church trails, Ludington, MI. 2 miles

In other news: I edited all day. I did a few errands and went to bell choir practice. I didn't get to cross off a single item. Big List is still at 73 entries with 28 crossed off, leaving 45 to go in 49 days. Chop, chop!

See Purple Mushrooms

Little Things

  Cathy and I went for a 5.5 mile hike today on the North Country Trail. It was hot and humid, but there was a pretty strong breeze that helped when it wasn't blowing dirt in our eyes.

This was a fun find. It's either Pig Ears fungus, or Fireplace Cup. It's dark for the pig ears, but the Fireplace Cup usually grows in burned soil, which this was not.

There was quite a lot of it. This is a sampling.

And the wind had brought down a lot of Oak Apple galls. All the ones we saw were smaller than usual.

I cut one open so Cathy could see inside. The structure is really easy to see when they are this small.

Were you wondering about the little things on my deck? Yup... proud papa mostly perches on a bracket, and mom stays busy.

In other news: I did some editing and odds and ends before hiking. But the 3 hours of sleep I got last night has about run out now.

North Country Trail miles for 2021 is at 317. Cathy is at 42.5

North Country Trail, Manistee County, MI, Hamilton Rd north 2.75 miles and back. Total 5.5 miles

See Oak Apple Gall See Mrs. Phoebe Gets Cozy

Gyromitra Parade

 
Surprisingly, I've see three false morels this spring. Maybe three different kinds. Maybe only two. Maybe I know what I'm talking about and maybe I don't. Anyway.

Gyromitra are all false morels. Mostly they shouldn't be eaten. Some people are apparently able to tolerate the ones that are sometimes called "beefsteak," but now that the chemistry is better understood, I'm sure not trying any of them.

This one is probably Gyromitra esculenta, often called brain fungus. You can see why. In some places people eat these after boiling thoroughly. But they release volatile hydrzines which can affect the liver, kidneys and central nervous system. This picture was taken May 2.



This one is probably Hooded False Morel, Gyromitra infula. I have to say "probably," because I'm not good enough on mushroom ID to know what to look for. I should have checked to see if the stalk was hollow, solid, or full of filaments, taken a spore sample, etc. But I was hiking, not botanizing. Sometimes it develops an interesting shape that results in the common name of elfin saddle. Picture taken May 4. They usually fruit later in the season, but it's not unheard of to find them in the spring.



And here's another. Or another one of the same thing as one of the above. As you can see it's lighter in color than the G. infula, and not as convoluted as G. esculenta, but that doesn't really mean anything. They have a range of colors, and they darken with age. I didn't even look to see if this one had a stalk. Picture taken April 24. The dark one above did have a white stalk.

But, you are safe to just call them all false morels. You are probably a lot less safe to eat them. Less safe than going out in public in these days of the virus.



In other news: I worked on one of my many projects in the morning, and then switched to hiking maps in the afternoon. I finished the maps, and have now started redoing the Data Book for the trail to make it more useful.

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Fun Guys Wear Brown

The good stuff just keeps coming at this time of year! These pictures are from the hike on Saturday, but I took a video today that I've been trying to get since I have had a digital camera. And it came out really well! So I'll have that for tomorrow. I'm also really excited about something that is going to occur tomorrow evening. A lady who knows frog voices well enough that she is an observer for the state frog surveys was on the Saturday hike, and taught us to recognize the chorus frog. It is the one that sounds like you are running a thumbnail over the teeth of a comb.

She is taking me with her to Sterling Marsh tomorrow evening, and we are going to listen to frogs. I am going to try to capture some of the sounds. I can recognize several kinds, but not nearly enough.

Now for the brown fungi. Oh, you expected brown clowns? Nope.



This odd looking thing is called calf brain mushroom. It does have a stalk, but I didn't do a good job of picturing that. It's actually a false morel. At this time of year people are starting to look seriously for the true morels, a mushroom that is highly popular to eat. It's easy to identify so people don't make fatal mistakes with it, which helps its popularity too. You don't want to eat this one though.



This one was spectacular! It's hemlock polypore or hemlock varnish shelf, Ganoderma tsugae. It will grow on other trees, but definitely is most likely found on decaying conifers, with a special fondness for hemlock. That's what it's growing on here. Here is the underside of another one of the "shelves". Yes, it's called a shelf fungus.



I know, that's not so interesting, but you can see that it doesn't have gills. That is one of the characteristics of the polypores. Instead of gills they have many pores... polypores.

See The Power of Nature for another polypore See Details, Details for an inky cap fungus