SalemScott Posted December 21, 2014 Report Share Posted December 21, 2014 With the temps hovering right around freezing I headed out this morning. We've had a good amount of rain during the week so I was hoping to check out a new spot, hoping for some oysters and whatever else came along. Soon after arriving I started finding oysters...unfortunately they were all out of reach, some on dead trees in a pond as well as the nicest bunch I've seen to date, sadly 20'+ in a tree. Anyone here ever thought about bringing along the spikes tree guys wear to climb trees? After jumping a couple deer I came upon my largest mushroom to date, a huge artist conk. In this cold weather the rate of mushroom sightings is somewhat low but still enough to keep me searching. Thanks for any help you can give on ID's. Oyster mushrooms I believe (Pleurotus ostreatus)? Artist conk (Ganoderma applanatum)? Very old chicken of the woods (Laetiporus sulphureus)? Unknown toothed mushroom (I see alot of these on the bottom of laying down logs) Unknown polypore? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave W Posted December 21, 2014 Report Share Posted December 21, 2014 Sugaree, I've heard of carrying a telescoping or otherwise un-assembled pole and then attaching a sharp knife to one end. People have harvested Oysters like this, That round grouping in the one photo looks like prime stuff. Ganoderma applanatum... yup. Cluster of relatively thin polypores on the horizontal log... Looks like an old Laetiporus, Chicken Mushroom. Not worth harvesting now. If I'm correct, the material will be fragile for a polypore, crumbly. Next one looks like Spongipellis pachyodon. http://www.mushroomexpert.com/spongipellis_pachyodon.html Last two photos the same thing? I think so. Faded specimens of Polyporus alveolaris, I'd say. (I believe the current genus is Favolus.) http://www.mushroomexpert.com/polyporus_alveolaris.html Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SalemScott Posted December 21, 2014 Author Report Share Posted December 21, 2014 Thanks Dave, one of the nice things I've noticed is that some of these chicken mushrooms, while long past being edible, are giving me clues on where to check next year for them. Now that you mention it that Spongipelis looks somewhat familiar and I believe I've seen a similar mushroom before it started looking 'toothed'. It's funny, I was looking in the Audobon guide thinking the pore surface of the Favolus alveolaris looked identical but the cap was completely different. I guess the cap has a similar effect as the turkeytail, eventually turning a powdery/fuzzy white as they get past prime. Thanks again. BTW, I'll stop by home depot tomorrow and check out extending poles. If I can find something very collapsible I may give it a try. I just don't want to be carrying around a 10' pole on all my walks, lol. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave W Posted December 21, 2014 Report Share Posted December 21, 2014 Another possibility for the polypore with the large polygonal pores is Polyporus craterellus. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
4rum Posted December 21, 2014 Report Share Posted December 21, 2014 A good walk with good photos at any rate. I like to 'scout' for next year too. I've done the same thing with chicken of the woods. I'm still excited at finding oysters after the amount of cold weather we've had. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shroomersue Posted December 21, 2014 Report Share Posted December 21, 2014 That bunch of tree dwelling shrooms because of its perfect formation could possibly be northern tooth ..climatodon sept. Seeing some tooth undersides there? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shroomersue Posted December 21, 2014 Report Share Posted December 21, 2014 The ones you think maybe oysters that is. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SalemScott Posted December 21, 2014 Author Report Share Posted December 21, 2014 That bunch of tree dwelling shrooms because of its perfect formation could possibly be northern tooth ..climatodon sept. Seeing some tooth undersides there? Hi Sue, here is a cropped pic of one of the pics I took. I believe I'm seeing gills there but I wouldn't want to say for sure if it's an oyster without the mushroom in hand. Thanks for looking. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shroomersue Posted December 22, 2014 Report Share Posted December 22, 2014 those be gills alright! oysters they might be Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave W Posted December 22, 2014 Report Share Posted December 22, 2014 At first glance I also thought "Climacodon septentrionalis" about that nice neat oval group. But gilled they are. I'd say Oysters. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Old Oak Posted December 23, 2014 Report Share Posted December 23, 2014 I've been carrying an extending painting pole for years for oysters. It works great and recently home depot started carrying paint scrapers that screw on to the end of the pole...this is much better than trying to jerry-rig a knife to the end of one of these (speaking from experience). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SalemScott Posted December 23, 2014 Author Report Share Posted December 23, 2014 I've been carrying an extending painting pole for years for oysters. It works great and recently home depot started carrying paint scrapers that screw on to the end of the pole...this is much better than trying to jerry-rig a knife to the end of one of these (speaking from experience). Lol, it is so funny you say this. I haven't made it down to the hardware store yet but I was thinking that a paint scraper would be a good push-knife to knock the mushrooms down. How about a net halfway down the pole to catch the mushroom with. Thanks for the heads up, I'll be looking further into this soon, especially since it's in the 50's this week and I have two 4-day weekends coming up. Combined with the rain we're currently getting I assume it should be a fruitful weekend of mushroom hunting. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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