Bigboye57

This bad boy has enough amatoxins to painfully and slowly kill you( Slaps cap emphatically). The all white appearance is wonderful on these, all I can think of is a ghost.

I am not sure on the exact species as there are a handful of closely related ones in NW Indiana. I did not take it home to break out a microscope or KOH, so we will have to survive without.

Now I am curious if whatever slug munched on this is toast, if any slug specialists out there want to fill me in I would appreciate it.

Bonus Cinnamon chanterelle, another bright red mushroom that looks out of place.

It is always nice to see the vibrant red. Found in NW Indiana

Per usual mushrooms do what they want. This species is not supposed to be popping right now until later in the year. The conditions were right though to fire it off though.

This is easily the biggest one(foot for scale is the best I could do in the bramble)I have come across and with all the rain we have been getting, split the poor guy apart.

Bonus eastern box turtle.

Another coral I stumbled across in the woods. The color on these guys is incredible.

Bonus shot of some baby racoons.

I think Oudemansiella furfuracea but I know these guys are weird/are actively being studied. From what I read the genus is being fleshed out and sequencing is making things complicated on what species are what. Also they did the old genus switcheroo on me as happens in mycology as I use to call these Xerula. I will go to my grave using Armillaria bulbosa though, can not take that one from me.

These guys are pretty common around here. They are edible but I have never been a huge fan. As far as fun texture, I will give them a 10/10.

I came across a big dryads saddle today. I got Shep in there for scale, I would say it is about .25 sheps in diameter.

The other thing I love about these mushrooms is the trippy underside(I forgot to grab a video). Then I swear they smell like a watermelon rind when you cut into them but my wife argues against, so I could use a decider here. As always hope you all are enjoying the weather and get a chance to be in nature.

I have been finding lots of these guys over the past week.

When I first started hunting for morels I researched how to identify trees based of bark so I could hunt under the elms, tulips, sycamores, etc. what I ended up finding out is mushrooms grow where mushrooms want, rules of thumb be damned.

This patch here was 30 feet away from the closest tree and at that they were pines. Morels cannot be stopped apparently. Happy hunting folks.

This is another genus I never looked deeply into so others are welcome to chime in. If I had to guess I would go with brunnea over caroliniana but that is off memory so who knows.

The one thing I do know is that morels come shortly after I start seeing these guys. I already found ramps so just need to check morels off. Hope spring has arrived for you guys as well.

These are some of the first mushrooms to pop around me in spring. The red is always a welcome sight. Not great for eating but I have put them in salads more so for color then them actually tasting good.