Moldy fruit season is upon us 🧫🍅🍑🍊! Time to celebrate 🥳! #Mushrooms #FungiFriends

Remembering that unforgettable scarlet elfcup from last spring! #Mushrooms #FungiFriends

Well look at you, you charmingly colossal Cracked Cap Polypore! #Mushrooms #FungiFriends

It’s getting pretty ridiculous here - I can’t walk through the forest without running into multiple COTWs (chicken of the woods) prime for harvesting! It’s a foragers paradise! #Mushrooms

So cool to find a bulbous honey mushroom (Armillaria gallica) growing right out of a rhizomorph 😍🍯🍄‍🟫! #Mushrooms

Saw a really beautiful chicken today in the woods! #Mushrooms

Has it been dry AF due to no rain in forever? Yes! Can I still find beautiful mushrooms and other fungi because I’ve devoted my life to knowing their secrets? Also yes! #Mushrooms #FungiFriends

Noticed this Melampsora rust fungus (M. epitea) underneath the yellowing leaves of a local ornamental willow tree! 😍 #FungiFriends

“All you touch and all you see is all your life will ever be!” #Mushrooms

A chicken, an old man, a hen, and a shrimp walk into the woods and they stay there! 😂 #Mushrooms

Chicken, old man, hen, and shrimp of the woods! #Mushrooms

You want to see the most perfect chicken of the woods? Sorry, all I have to offer you is the mediocre polypore! #Mushrooms

Saw what I think is an Eastern Milksnake today on the local rail trail earlier today. It was pretty small, but exiting nevertheless as we never saw one before!

It’s hard to believe this Hen of the Woods (Grifola frondosa) I harvested and photographed is not a hyper realistic painting! Nature produces so many works of art! #Mushrooms

Resinous polypore (Ischnoderma resinosum) was not on my September fungus bingo card, but I’m delighted to check it off nevertheless! #Mushrooms #FungiFriends

Have you ever seen the rhododendron bud blast fungus Seifertia azaleae? As the name suggests this fungus is a pathogen of rhododendrons and azaleas! #Mushrooms

Honey mushroom season has arrived with gusto here in the north central Appalachian mountains! #Mushrooms

With every mistake We must surely be learning Still my polypore gently weeps #mushrooms

I may have not won the powerball due to lack of buying a ticket, but I hit the jackpot with this find: a Fraser magnolia “cone” harboring both the Magnolia-cone mushroom (Strobilurus conigenoides) and the Magnolia-cone Xylaria (Xylaria magnoliae) 😍🤩🙌! #Mushrooms

The forest did not disappoint! #Mushrooms #FungiFriends

People convince themselves that they’re emotionally ready to see beneath the cap of a Sandy Laccaria, but then reality kicks in! 😍 #Mushrooms #FungiFriends

Nothing brightens up a walk like a fresh flush of orange mycena (Mycena leaiana) after a prolonged dry spell! #Mushrooms

The real question is can you survive the night in a fungal maze? #Mushrooms #FungiFriends

Have a long look at this absolutely stunning 🤩 black-staining polypore (Meripilus sumstinei) I encountered deep in the forest! #Mushrooms #FungiFriends

Encountered some spectacular parasitic plants this summer here in the north central Appalachians including beech drops (Epifagus virginiana) and bear corn (Conopholis americana)! The former is found commonly under American beech while the latter is associated with oaks and causes cancer root!

Found a rosecomb mutation (gills form on the top of the main cap) on this viscid violet cort (Cortinarius iodes)! #Mushrooms #FungiFriends

What are the nasty scabs all over these crab apples you ask? This is a disease called apple scab caused by the fungus Venturia inaequalis. Apple scab isn’t specific to apples and crab apples. It also infects pears, mountain ash, firethorn, and other members of the rose family (Rosaceae)! #Fungi

Ants and a beetle frolicking on a brittle cinder (Kretzschmaria deusta) fungus! #Mushrooms #FungiFriends

No one ever asks how shaggy ink caps (Coprinus comatus) got their name! #Mushrooms

Never judge a book by its cover, because with some fruiting bodies, including the ectomycorrhizal fungus Pisolithus, much of the magic is on the inside! Look at those textures and colors 😍🤩! #Mushrooms #FungiFriends

Never pass up the opportunity to photograph bird’s nest fungi! 😍 #Mushrooms #FungiFriends

Ghost pipe (Monotropa uniflora) may look like a fungus, but its actually an achlorophyllous parasitic plant. Interestingly, it doesn’t parasitize plants directly. Instead, it parasitizes ectomycorrhizal fungi (Russulaceae) associated with plant roots. #mushrooms

Real artists need our support more than ever! I bought this beautiful mushroom print by @swordfernstudios.bsky.social from her studio website (see links below)! It’s not only beautiful original art, it’s quite affordable too! If you love fungi like I do, be sure to check out her page!

Lots of mushrooms out doing what they do best! #Mushrooms #FungiFriday

I reassured the slug that I only intended to photograph the sharp-scaly Pholiota not eat it! #mushrooms #FungiFriends #FungiFriday

Technically speaking soy sauce is made using Aspergillus oryzae or Aspergillus sojae so this post does not exclude fungi. 😋

Fungal guttation is always cause for celebration, but especially when it’s on the weeping polypore, Pseudoinonotus dryadeus! #mushrooms #FungiFriends

Though I prefer the name funeral bells over deadly skullcaps, both are useful in that they give sufficient warning regarding the extremely poisonous status of Galerina marginata! #mushrooms #FungiFriends

Found what appears to be a Plagiostoma sp. / Cryptodiaporthe sp. / some other closely allied fungus in the Gnomoniaceae on an ornamental willow tree at my son’s elementary school! It reminds me of golden canker of alternate-leaf dogwood! #mushrooms #fungifriends

Oak leaf blister is caused by the fungus Taphrina caerulescens. It’s closely related to the fungus that causes peach leaf curl disease! These oddball fungi form a subphylum with fission yeasts, earth tongues and Pneumocystis, causal agent of Pneumocystis pneumonia! #mushrooms #fungifriends

Goldenrod rust (Coleosporium asterum) is quite beautiful this time of year here in the Mid-Atlantic U.S. #mushrooms #fungifriends

Not gonna lie, this Russula is a complete weirdo! #mushrooms

Ganoderma sessile, you are one beautiful polypore! #mushrooms

Love finding a clump of Jack-o’-lantern mushrooms (Omphalotus illudens). These mushrooms may be poisonous, but they are also bioluminescent! #mushrooms #fungifriends

Hello there beautiful! #mushrooms

Spotted these absolutely stunning puffball mushrooms! 🤩🥰 #mushrooms

Sure lion’s mane mushroom is great, but given the option I prefer the coral tooth fungus (Hericium coralloides)! Such a lovely fungus to photograph! #mushrooms

With all the attention golden oyster mushrooms have been getting regarding the spread of non-native fungi, I have been thinking a lot about Asian beauty (Radulomyces copelandii)! I see it everywhere here in the north-central Appalachians! #mushrooms

The millipedes with the white fungal stripes are my absolute favorite! Probably Arthrophaga or Conidiobolus on this mycosed greenhouse millipede. #mushrooms #fungi

There is nothing common about this common earthbutt..I mean earthball. #mushrooms #fungifriends