Toadstool Trail Mix

"Trail mix" not meaning edible, but rather the mash, medley or miscellany of mushrooms found along or near "the Trail", whereas the folk name toadstool generally does refer to a mushroom that is poisonous.

The etymology of the word "toadstool" has been obscured by time; some think that in bygone days people believed toads used such mushrooms for seats, thereby passing on their toxins. And here's an example of a batrachian perching on a polypore – a Green Treefrog lounging on a Dryad's Saddle.

Beautiful but lethal ... a group of Deadly Galerina (Galerina marginata) photographed along a woodland path following the north shore of Stoco Lake.

These cheerful little sac fungi were brightening the shadier areas of the same decaying log. Lemon Drops (Bisporella citrina) are tiny, the caps of the largest specimens were no more than 3 mm in diameter.

Closeups of a Warty Puffball (Lycoperdon perlatum), the second image shows the inside. A common species, a cluster of these small puffballs (about 25 mm in diameter) were making themselves at home in an open, sunny clearing.

Mycology is a relatively young science, with the names of and relationships between fungi being in a constant state of flux. I encountered several groups of these attactive mushrooms east of town along the trail, all of them growing on boxelder. My copy of Mushrooms of Ontario and Eastern Canada calls the mushrooms in the following images Hypsizygus tessulatus, but according to MushroomExpert.Com this species is named Hypsizygus ulmarius.

The moist shady woods further east are the habitat of these large white mushrooms, probably Clitocybe robusta. A cell phone is included in the photo to impart a sense of scale.

A group of Coprinus sp. growing on a lawn in town – fungi can be found everywhere and you don't have to go far from home to find them. I'm not sure if these are Tippler's Bane, Mica Cap, or maybe some other species ...

A section view of one of the mushrooms.

Often called Inky Caps, the fruitbodies of Coprinus can autolyze or self-digest in a relatively short time. This is what a group of mushrooms looked like four days after they were first photographed.

Of course, the local library is a good place to study mycology ... about a hundred Leucocoprinus birnbaumii were growing in the potted plant in the reading room. At this stage the mushrooms are still immature and the caps have not yet opened to expose the gills.

Two days later: the caps have assumed their familiar parasol shapes.

Fungus Photos from Buttermilk Falls

Many thanks to Don Cox for the tour of his property, which includes not only woodland trails and open areas, but a marsh and beaver pond connected by the picturesque little falls.

Despite the different appearance of the caps, I think both of the following photos depict groups of Meadow Mushrooms (Agaricus campestris). As their name implies, this species favours open grassy places.

By far the most common species in the wooded areas are Big Laughing Gym (Gymnopilus spectabilis), the caps of some of these photogenic fungi exceeded 10 cm in diameter.

A lone cup fungus about 25 mm across, Peziza sp. (possibly Peziza repanda?) found growing near one of the groups of Honey Mushrooms. Many species of Peziza are difficult to distinguish from one another in the field.

The shore of the marsh was home to several Fly Agaric (Amanita muscaria, var. formosa). The larger of the two mushrooms in the picture below was about 8 cm across, but some were much bigger, about the size of a large saucer.

Blewit (Clitocybe nuda) prefers higher, drier, more open places along the shoulder of the highway. It seems that chipmunks, squirrels and insects have been taste testing these mushrooms so they are a little rough around the edges. The picture can't do justice to the delicate violet color of the gills.

The ubiquitous Marasmius oreades shares the same grassy habitat as the Blewit. Often called the Fairy Ring Mushroom, the common name can be confusing as this species doesn't always form rings, and other kinds of mushrooms can and do grow in rings.

Striped Fishing Spider (Dolomedes scriptus)

A somewhat atypical specimen, as the patterns of Striped Fishing Spiders generally don't contrast to this degree, and the dark areas of most individuals are more brown than black. This immature female had a body length of about 6 to 8 mm.

A photo of a similarly colored Striped Fishing Spider can be found at the magickcanoe.com Blog ... close encounters with Dolomedes spiders.

Confusing Fall Fungi

The moist, shaded woodlands east of "the Point" create an ideal habitat for many species mushrooms. As often as not it's difficult or impossible to identify relatively featureless white fungi from a photo, but the dark gills, the short stem and the double annulus indicate that this a group of Banded Agaric (Agaricus bitorquis) ... "bitorquis" means two collars and is a reference to the twin rings.

The Smooth Lepiota (Leucoagaricus naucina) can easily be mistaken for one of the white amanitas. However, the swollen base of this mushroom lacks the cup formed by the remnants of the universal veil, and the thin annulus or ring is often loose and can easily be moved.

A picturesque group of Lepiota cristata. This mushroom makes up for its good looks with a reputedly unpleasant odor (I didn't check this out in the field), hence its common name of Stinking Parasol.

The following two pictures were taken a couple of weeks ago. Obviously this is a tooth fungus – Hericium sp. – but what species? There wasn't anything quite like this in my field guide or on the Internet.

Here's the same fungus revisited, and two weeks have made a lot of difference. This is a Bear's Head Tooth Fungus (Hericium americanum), much easier to identify now that it's older, or to use a popular idiom – longer in the tooth.

Looks can be deceiving – judging by the "teeth" along the edges this appears be a species of tooth fungus. Actually, it's a polypore, Phlebia tremellosa, related to the bracket fungi ...

... and what seem to be a group of small "bracket fungi" growing on a twig turn out to be gill fungi, Crepidotus variabilis.

Schizophyllum commune is another polypore impersonator. Schizophyllum means "split leaf" – with its continually self-replicating pattern I think of this as the "fractal fungus".

A look at its underside establishes Schizophyllum commune's place in the fungus family tree ... this is a species of gill fungus.

Are these small fungi some kind of puffball?

The dry, spongy interior produces copious amounts of brown spores in the manner of a puffball. But these aren't puffballs, they are a species of slime mold called Wolf's Milk (Lycogala epidendrum) in the final stage of sporulation.

A photo taken in mid-August depicting Wolf's Milk (also called Groening's Slime) in an earlier stage of growth.