The Autumn Mushroom Season Is Upon Us. Corals, Stinkhorns and Blewits!

Yellow Jelly-like mushroom?

Cooler Weather Brings out Fall Mushrooms.

After our little race yesterday,  Cheryl and I snuck out for some "Forest Time" here in Iowa.   Finding forest time in Iowa is challenging.   First of all,  there are no trees!  ( Not entirely true, but certainly no like back in Michigan.)   Most woodlots are small, difficult to find, difficult to access, and usually are privately owned.    However,  every now and then we find a spot that offers a few of the things we are looking for.

Basket of Goodies. Note: Orange Lobster

Peace, quiet, trails, and opportunities to find Mushrooms!  The place we chose was the same one we explored with Julie and Mike when they visited.   It turned out to be such a gold mine of species!   And with the Fall weather finally appearing, we thought we might find a few new additions that our books talk about.

Purple Coral Mushroom.

I forgot my Camera, of all things!   But Cheryl had hers and we snapped a few photos.   As usual,  I threw everything in the basket.   We found a lovely Lobster Mushroom right off the bat. ( No picture, but it is orange!)

Golden Spindle Coral (Golden Fairy Club)

Like Deep Sea Diving!  Colorful!

We discovered a whole spectrum of Coral Mushrooms!   Purples, Oranges, Yellows and Whites.   I'm prety sure most of them were edible.  In fact, I have sampled the White crowned coral before.  The say that they are "peppery" and should not be eaten in large quantities because, similar to eating too many chilli pepers, they will upset your tummy.  Unless you are used to those types of things.   I have seen videos of people eating entire bowls of them, so take it for what it is worth.

Yellow Tipped Coral.

If we had wanted to, we could have filled our baskets to brimming with those alone.  But instead, we sought out variety.

Kinda small in our yard.

Cheryl watches the Stinkhorn Grow.

The whole thing got kicked off a couple of days ago when the stinkhorn in our yard finally peeked out.   I have been waiting for this mushroom for a while, because I know what one of them is the awesome and beautiful Veiled Sinkhorn!

Waiting for the Veiled one to appear.

Just a Common Stinkhorn.

This one looks like the common stinkhorn though.   Today, I saw that some flies had finally discovered the spores and were picking them up.   It is a smelly thing, that smells strongly of mushrooms.  You can smell it from several feet away!

Dog Stinkhorn smells like watermelon.

Cheryl and I discovered another round of the Dog Stinkhorn.   Colorful, and after picking it for a closer look, we also noted that the smell closely resembles mushrooms mixed with watermelon!

And then we discovered this one. 

Large Emerging Stinghorn.

Will this one drop a veil?

It was along our bike/run spot, so we did not have time to return and see if it would open up even more.  But this was the first time I actually have seen one emerging from the egg.   The gelatinous goo was still on the top!   I had hoped that this one might drop the veil, but we had 17 miles to run and could not come back to see what would happen next.   I certainly was the largest one we have seen to date.

Blewits vs Purple Corts.

Our latest Collection. Spore ID area.

With our basket of mushrooms home,  I placed them on the mats for spore prints. ( and closer inspection) I thought there was a chance that we had finally found some Blewits.   The Purple and Yellow Corts seemed to be mostly done.  Both Corts have a rusty brown spore print while the Blewits have a light pink-ish spore print.

Does this look pink-ish to you?

This is a Blewit. ( we think.) 

I believe we discovered severl of these wih Julie and Mike as well, but I was working and did not give them the time they required for a Possitive ID.

Yellow Cort.  Rusty Brown Spore Print.

I should also mention the Humble Russelas that we found, but that will probably require its own post.  There is jus so much to talk about with that one.

Hummer in Action.

Well, Thanks for stopping in.   The Hummingbird is busy trying to drink up the last of Summer before heading back south.   He is very noisy outside our Open Window.   I'm just happy to see him active in this chilly weather.   Between the flowers of the Cardinal Creeper and the full feeders, he shoudl have plenty of fuel for the trip.    Thanks for stopping in.