Hello FungiLovers! I would like to share a few photos of more winter fungi found in the forests of western Michigan, USA. While I wait for spring to come, I have begun scoping out potential morel hunting grounds and taking photographs of the winter fungi that I find along the way. Over the last few days, I have come across a few of the more hardy species that inhabit my region, including a few uniquely shaped specimens.
While the winter is not typically the most exciting time to go hunting for mushrooms, I am glad that I chose to do so over this last weekend. While most of the species that I encountered where familiar to me, I was pleasantly surprised by some of the forms that the fungi I encountered had taken on. Even the most common species have the ability to exhibit wild and surprising forms from time to time.
Among the most interesting fungi that I found included a collection of violet-toothed polypore (Trichaptum biforme) shelves that had developed on the dead limb of a tree. The same tree had become infected with hypoxylon canker (Biscogniauxia atropunctata), causing the limb to break from the trunk and tumble to the forest floor below. Once on the ground, the violet-toothed polypore shelves that had once been oriented with their pores towards the forest floor when its host limb had been attached to the tree's trunk, now found themselves inverted 180 degrees with their pores facing up to the sky. Rather than give up on dispersing its spores, the fungus was able to recognize that it was upside down and began developing new, properly oriented shelves at the margin of its older growth. I have witnessed many artist's brackets (Ganoderma applanatum) reorienting their pore surfaces to face the forest floor after their host tree falling to the ground, but never before have I seen any shelf fungi invert its pore surface and entire 180 degrees. If this is not an example of intelligence, I'm not sure what is.
Another interesting fungi that I found was a particular shelf of mossy maze polypore (Cerrena unicolor) that possessed a mass of pore tissue on the upper surface of its cap. While I have seen this sort of mutation referred to as a "rosecomb mutation" when gills form on the top of a mushroom cap surface, I do not know if the same term applies for polypores like this species.
Apart from these anomalies, I found plenty of other fascinating fungi. I hope that you all enjoy these finds; with spring around the corner, there is plenty more soon to come!
Violet-toothed Polypore (Trichaptum biforme):
Mossy Maze Polypore (Cerrena unicolor):
Orchard Toothcrust (Sarcodontia crocea):
Orange Jelly Spot (Dacrymyces chrysospermus):
Scurfy Twiglet (Tubaria furfuracea):
Oak Curtain Crust Fungus (Hymenochaete rubiginosa):
Clustered Bonnet (Mycena inclinata):
Artist's Bracket (Ganoderma applanatum):
Hypoxylon Canker (Biscogniauxia atropunctata):
Ochre Spreading Tooth (Steccherinum ochraceum):
Luminescent Panellus (Panellus stipticus):
Artist's Bracket (Ganoderma applanatum):
Mustard Yellow Polypore (Fuscoporia gilva):
Veiled Polypore (Cryptoporus volvatus):
Powderpuff Bracket (Ptychogaster albus):
American Amber Jelly Fungus (Exidia crenata):
Winter Polypore (Lentinus brumalis):
Turkey-Tail (Trametes versicolor):
Brown-toothed Crust Fungus (Hydnoporia olivacea):
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