Category: Mushrooms

This year I decided not to take photos unless I came across a new type, or an arrangement held promise of making a good composition. I found some interesting examples in the grass in my yard, as well as in nearby Menotomy Rocks Park with its ample supply of fallen wood.

A fallen branch provided the perfect dark backdrop to highlight the details of a delicate mushroom with its knob-topped cap. Patches of Black Witches Butter “decorated” a decaying log, and perfect rounded puffballs spring up three times in succession in a spot near the entrance to the park. I also came across two slime molds worthy of photos: pinkish-orange textured balls and tiny white stars.

It has been a disappointing mushroom season -bland really, compared to the mushrooms in 2021. Still there were some interesting shaggy characters, crimped edges, jellies and a slime mold or two.

I saw none of the bright orange and yellow Chicken of the Woods mushrooms that were so abundant in the last few years despite the dryness. I missed them and hope they were just taking a break.

Although areas nearby have gotton considerable rain, where I live in Arlington, Massachusetts, USA, we had a whole month of unrelenting dryness. This year there is nothing like the diverse abundance I saw around this time in 2021. Still there were some notable mushrooms popping up here and there. Evidently Chicken of the Woods and Jack O Lanterns produce fruiting bodies even when it is dry.

I did come across some interesting slime molds. Those are included as the last photos below.

I expected this fall’s crop of mushrooms would be different from last season’s given our highly changeable conditions these days.

Fungi, slime molds and lichens can tell when conditions are right to produce fruiting bodies and disperse spores. That window of opportunity appeared to come quite early in spring and summer this year. But interesting examples are still popping up. If I manage to capture worthy portraits of their splendid forms, I will add them below.

Once again it has been an unusually rainy spring and summer with mushrooms in mossy spots in the woods as well as in our yards and even cracks in sidewalks.

Now that I have been paying more careful attention for a couple of years, I am finding examples that you might not normally think of as mushrooms, as well as slime molds with their fruiting bodies deposited where the wind can help with propagation.

Last summer it rained nearly every day followed by a rather spectacular crop of mushrooms popping up in Menotomy Rocks Park.

This year the rains have started again after a prolonged draught. I came across yellow and orange Chicken of the woods brackets where I found them last year as this video suggests I might. And there were a few other interesting fungi, mostly in shades of white, tan and brown. As the season is not yet over, I will add additional examples below.