Here is some mushroom art for this #mushroommonday
Winter is the off season for mushroom hunting around here so I am looking at some of my past finds to turn them into some interesting mandala compositions while I wait for spring.
The first mushroom find is a dryad's saddle. These are some of the first mushrooms I see in spring and they are a decent edible if you can find them in time before they turn tough and spongy.
This is what the dryad's saddle turned into as a mandala. It kind of reminds me of the an eye iris of a reptile of some kind.
The next find is a giant puffball. I find these in October after a rain and they are huge and work well in all sorts of dishes. You can even cut them in slices and use them as pizza crust.
The puffball turned into some kind of star portal or perhaps an energy core for a spaceship.
Here is Polyporus alveolaris, though not terribly useful for eating they have an amazing color and gill pattern.
This hexagonal polypore made an interesting hive-like texture. Perhaps a bunch of weird insects will hatch out of this strange alien nest.
I believe this one is a pholiota of some kind possibly Pholiota flammans. I wouldn't recommend eating these as they have some poisonous lookalikes, They do have an interesting bright orange color and are somewhat tough in texture.
The pholiota has turned into a huge sunburst explosion. Perhaps it is creating another big bang that will create a new universe.
That's all for now, I'll have to try and figure out what to do for #fungifriday for mushroom art... Thanks for looking :-)