Do I know anyone in any other country which would hire a lab assistant without a degree? Or a mycologist. Or a tour guide.

Well shit. Was just told by my employment support worker that my funding application for school which starts in 3 months probably isn't going to get approved in time. Apparently a 2 year waiting list wasn't enough time? Time to waste more of my adult life unemployed stuck in a dying town.

Pseudotaxiphyllum elegans - Elegant Silk-Moss New to me I like this one. Most mosses don't come with a built-in bean holster, but this one does.

All the crustose lichens I wanna follow up on seem to be in the direction of a really inconvenient detour due to a bridge replacement. Since I've snapped my own frame this week I'll have to be extra cautious with the vehicles I borrow.

Threeseeded Sedge - Carex trisperma Apparently C. trisperma can also be monospermous.

Weird Leccinum My physical methods lead me to believe this is a weird one. Most Leccinum species have dark scabers and bruise when cut. This was neither. There is an P. pallidistipes which fits, but as a rule I don't like to ID things as a name with 2 GBIF occurrences.

Well it's K-, which rules out Callistosporium and The Xeromphalina lookalike. The wavy yellow gills and growth under hemlock/red maple says this particular species.

My project for the day is this mushroom. In short, I suspect it's Gymnopus earleae. K test and spore analysis should rule out the other sneaky genera I think it could be in.

Salamander Algae - Oophila amblystomatis New to me Apparently that's a thing. I suspected people on iNat were reporting one of the usual filamentous algae that happened to be on amphibian eggs, but it seems to be a repeatable result microscopically.

The flies were so bad today. Barely wanted to be out more than an hour

www.inaturalist.org/observations... Someone spotted a melanistic red fox nearby recently, and I love it. It's like a calico, but on 'red' fox terms.

Polyphemus Moth - Antheraea polyphemus New to me I usually don't see many moths at my light, but someone quite spectacular came to visit tonight.

I really like that I've reached the stage of my life where I can send adventurers on quests. It's an important component in wizardliness.

#silentsunday #LichenSubscribe

Hey, check it out, a new youtuber that talks about mushrooms. We love to see it. www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y2hj...

Lurid Cupola-Moss - Cinclidium stygium New to me I expect I will have to defend my conclusion on this one. 1: Usually it has reddish tones 2: Macro photo suuuucked 3: There may only be one previous record of this in the province. 4: In some guides it keys out as Cyrtomnium hymenophylloides

Trematodon ambiguus - Vague Trematodon New to me Growing in the strip of unshredded soil between logging skidder tire tracks in a clearcut. Originally suspected I had a Ditrichum based on the capsules and habitat, but the leaf shape and orientation did not agree with that.

I'm going to put this one's proper naming conventions in a secondary post so you get some enjoyment out of this cute little lady. Isn't she precious? It feels a bit wrong because she's blonde, but I shall call her Reba.

Ha! It may be neither. This may be non-biological, like a mineral seep over-acidifying the leaves and killing them off, rather than a fungal parasite. It's very crunchy, granular, and opaque. Good thing no one was placing bets.

Before I go dive into this one, let's place fake bets on whether this white stuff is a dust lichen or a bryoparasitic fungus. I think if I see anything spore producing under the scope it would rule out dust lichen, as those generally reproduce more fragmentarily I think.

Plagiopus oederianus - Oeder's Apple Moss New to me I don't know if any of you would remember the incident where I thought I found this 2 years ago based on capsule traits, but the capsules turned out to be more unreliable than my key inferred. Had to go to the herbarium to see the leaf differences.

Umbilicaria americana - Frosted Rocktripe One of three known locations in Nova Scotia to have this species. More white with a matte finish in comparison to the larger and more common U. mammulata.

Puccinia mariae-wilsoniae Apparently there is a cryptic one cell spored lookalike which occurs on the same plant. Looks like I got the normal one.

Wow. These lichens are so cool.

Underappreciated lichen habitat. Most of the waterfalls I go to have neat little non-flashy lichens which don't get noticed often. Sometimes they're very small, sometimes they're underwater, sometimes they're high up and you have to climb, but there's usually something worth finding at a waterfall.

今朝の #バス待ちきのこ🍄🚌 ちと成長してるみたいです😊 #fungifriends

Congratulations to @ilichenmoss2.bsky.social for this BBC showcase of his vital discovery. Casualties of the invasive Campylopus introflexus #moss in Britain include our diverse, beautiful but slower-growing native Cladonia #lichens, which struggle to compete with it. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Big patch of chocolate tubes. Stemonitis sp. #slimemold #myxomycetes #fungifriends

Looks like that was my first corticolous Lejeunea cavifolia. It usually does grow on rock but I do see other occurrences on red maple bark in areas the rocks aren't ideal. Things can be so different just a few miles away. The only verifiable report of one in PEI seems to be one of these bark ones.

Looks like I'm out of purgatory. My new microscope has arrived in the mail.

Next time a large Deer Mushroom species is described they should name it Pluteus maximus. I can't believe no one's gone for that low hanging fruit yet.

Xanthoparmelia angustiphylla - Narrow-Lobed Rock-Shield Lichen This one here is the most similar to the X. cumberlandia which is often reported on there. Its difference is very subtle, its lower surface being black as opposed to a light brownish colour.

Today I've decided to mass-disagree to some of the over ten thousand Xanthoparmelia uploads on iNat that are IDed to species level but don't show the lower cortex, which is necessary if you want to ID it more specifically than genus. This might be more than a one man, one day job.

My periodic shoutout to Saltwater Sean. Doing the lords work as the say

Just saw an iNat observation that would have been the cause of demonic reports 100s of years ago. Someone was digging up some weeds from their yard and thought their shovel hit a rock. But then it moved. A snapping turtle had buried itself in their yard and didnt appreciate being awoken by a shovel.

5月24日の菌探索より🍄 切株の上にアラゲキクラゲ(?)のみなさんが不気味かわいく成長中😃 よく見ると内側がちょっと紫色っぽいような🤔 #fungifriends

Please take the time to review and sign this petition in support of the U.S. National Fungus Collections, which are being threatened in the face of the USDA reorganization efforts. c.org/KQWY7fNhGw 🍄

Agrocybe pediades - Common Fieldcap Mushroom season feels like it's about to get going at any moment. I'm expecting a better mushroom season than I've seen in years due to both this year's rain and the lack of it in the previous years. Things have been waiting to fruit for years.

There is a tiny fly which comes around in the summertime and flies straight into your eyeballs. Was cleaning out a skylight and if my split second memories serve me correct, these might be what the culprit looks like before you blink and it gets torn up by your eyelids moving.

@ilichenmoss2.bsky.social George Greiff in the BBC News headlines on Sunday morning. A fantastic discovery, and hopefully a way to moderate invasive (INNS) Campylopus introflexus (Heath Star Moss). Well deserved recognition for some very interesting bryological work. 🎉🙌 www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Riggindale Beck, Haweswater, recently. Good #lichen on rock. Lots of jelly Collema glebulentum. Also Dermatocarpon miniatum (medulla I-, spores right size) and copious Ephebe hispidula (tiny bushy thallus, conidia v small). Some base-rich water/rock, too much bad algae=nitrogen pollution. #lichengbi

showed you mine so you have to show me yours #FungiFriday

Good morning and happy #FungiFriday

First #Mushroom 🍄 of 2026. And it's a nice one. I was gathering various wood for my, "Grave of the Curious" Hügelkultur, and I found a breeding spot for these. What did I find, wise young @fungiwithbengi.bsky.social ?

A member of the Cladonia chlorophaea group. Its brownish tones and growth on acidic bark suggest C. cryptochlorophaea is a strong possibility here, but it still requires a spot test for confirmation.

I think once I find where the Amethysts are coming from I will have figured out where the entire supply chain of the local gem and mineral shops originate. The purple guys still elude me. I'm seeing smaller versions of this going for 50 bucks. People sure love their rocks.

Small lichens (and an ooze) on a plumeria tree #fungifriends

Mushroom 🍄‍🟫 King 👑 Always a great find when a singular fungi grows out the end of a freshly moss-dusted log. 🪵 #mushrooms #fungi #macrophotography