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"G"reat day to see mushrooms...


Dave W

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...inside my folders of photos, that is. Snowing outside right now. But if I'm gonna post all the way through the alphabet, then this is perfect weather.

Galerina marginata grows directly on wood and has a rusty brown spore print. The color of the caps may change as moisture is lost. Also, sometimes the cap margin is faintly lined, and other times not. The young version of this type mushroom has a whitish partial veil and pale gills. The veil forms a ring on the stalk that becomes brown as the spores fall onto it, but the ring may erode and even disappear. This deadly poisonous species may be confused with the edible Flammulina velutipes, which is white-spored. Galerina marginata occurs mainly during fall, winter, and spring. But I have also seen it during summer. Photos directly below show Galerina marginata.

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"Deadly Galerina" is not the only species of this genus found in my area. There are multiple species of small moss-inhabiting Galerinas that are most common in spring, and then reappear in fall. Edibility of these types is generally unknown, but given that Galerina marginata contains the deadly aminatoxins, no Galerinas should ever be consumed. Young Galerina mushrooms look somewhat like Mycenas (which are white-spored), especially when the gills are pale. The third photo seen directly below is an example. Galerina spore prints are brown, but often only a small amount of spore drops from one of these LBMs. Microscopically, most Galerina spores feature a "plage", a flattened or slightly concave area located near one end of the spore.

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Galiella rufa is a Cup Fungus that grows on wood. It seems to occur sporadically at various times during summer or fall. When cross-sectioned, the inside is seen to be a jelly-like substance.

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This next one matches very well with the description of Gamundia striatula, which is a European species. Is this one exactly this same species? Maybe, maybe not. An interesting find.

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Ganoderma is a genus of polypore which features both the Artist's Conk and Reishi types. The upper surface may be brown, gray, whitish, or feature bands of variable color. The underside is white, and a picture may be sketched/scratched into the pore surface and shellacked. The unintentional partial-selfie shows the underside of Ganoderma applanatum,

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Our most common "Varnish Shelf" is Ganoderma tsugae, which is found almost always on hemlock wood. The insects known as "pleasing beetles" feast upon the hemlock Reishi, and can wipe out hundreds of the polypores within a week or so.

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The past few years, I've been finding these tiny Earth Stars on a small patch of poor soil next to my front yard. Geastrum minimum.

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Gliophorus is a genus recently split off from genus Hygrocybe. The slippery coating on the caps and stalks of Gliophorus mushrooms make them difficult to handle.

Gliophorus laetus.

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Gliophorus psittacinus, aside from being potentially useful as a spelling-bee word, is a colorful little mushroom, featuring green, orange, yellow, or pale cap colors.

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Gliophorus irrigatus is a dark gray species.

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Gloeophyllum sepiarium is a hard-fleshed "Maze Polypore".

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Try to say this quickly five times "Gloioxanthomyces nitida"... or even slowly, or once, or once slowly. Formerly Hygrocybe. Easily confused with Cantharellus minor, but probably harmless.

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One of my favorite edibles, Grifola frondosa. This Hen is low to the ground and spread out among fallen leaves, making it uncharacteristically tricky to see.

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Gymnopilus is a genus of wood-inhabiting gilled mushrooms with rusty orange spores. Some species are identifiable by appearance/substrate. Gymnopilus sapineus is a small conifer-inhabiting species with a cap surface covered in tiny scales.

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The large species of Gymnopilus are often difficult to ID to species. This observation from 2012 shows a cluster found growing on buried wood. After posting to Mushroom Observer, there were several proposed species names, but virtually no agreement among the posters.

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Gymnopus is a genus consisting of white-spored saprobic mushrooms that formerly accounted for a large percentage of genus Collybia. Some are difficult to pin down, some are not.

Gymnopus alkalivirens has dark cap and dark stalk.

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Gymnopus confluens is a white to tan capped species with a fibrous hairy stalk.

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Gymnopus dichrous is a wood inhabitor. These are a bit unusually developed, with funky wavy umbonate caps and intervenose gills.

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Gymnopus dryophilus is possibly the most common species in the genus. But it's easily confused with a few other ones.

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Gymnopus luxurians is a particularly robust species of Gymnopus. Usually found in open areas growing from buried wood or woody debris.

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Gymnopus subnudus is similar to Mycetinus scorodonius (Garlic Marasmius), only without the garlic odor.

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Gymnopus earleae is quite similar to Gymnopus dryohilus. I *think* this ID is correct.

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Gymnopus subsulphureus is like a yellower version of Gymnopus earleae, which means it's also like a yellower version of Gymnopus dryophilus. Difficult to distinguish these three from one another. I'm not completely convinced of my own ID here. But this batch was strikingly yellow (more than the photo captured), and the early occurrence supports the subsulphureus ID.

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Gyroporus castaneus is the "Chestnut Bolete". Cap color and stem color usually match each other, but the color varies quite a bit among different observations. The stalk snaps like a piece of chalk, and its interior is stuffed with a less dense material, sometimes with hollow chambers, or even almost completely hollow in age.

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Gyroporus cyanescens turns vividly blue immediately upon being handled or sliced. It is an excellent edible.

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Gyroporus purpurineus is an uncommon species. This one found in 2012 is one of only a handful comprising my 35 years of hunting mushrooms.

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Gyrodon merulioides also goes by the name Boletinellus merulioides. The "Ash Tree Bolete" is edible, but hardly anybody ranks it as good. This mushroom parasitizes larvae of insects that feed off nutrients from the roots of ash trees. An interesting three-some.

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Gyromitra is a genus of so-called "False Morels". Supposedly, Gyromitra esculenta is one of the more common species in this genus. But I haven't seen it for at least the last 15 years. Gyromitras are eaten by some people, but they do contain a dangerous toxin that apparently cooks away, or possibly evaporates while drying. I don't eat them. Our most common species seems to be Gyromitra korfii. Note the chambered interior. True morels have interior consisting of one continuous hollow cavity.

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Gyromitra brunnea can look an awful lot like Gyromitra korfii. Usually, Gyromitra brunnea may be expected to have a deep pinch in the middle of the cap, and creases that are sharper than the rounded folds of Gyromitra korfii. But microscopic analysis is often necessary to tell the difference between these two species. I think these two species --or maybe just one of them-- have recently been moved to genus Disciotis. Gyromitra brunnea appears directly below.

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Gyromitra infula is a summer/fall wood-inhabitor.

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Finally, Gymnosporangium juniperi-virginianae is the most unusual representative for the letter G. This begins as a small hard brown nodule on the branch of a cedar tree. The inner flesh is whitish, but slowly stains vivid orange. If these fruit bodies are allowed to mature, they sprout into drooping orange tentacles during spring. The spores of this fungus travel to apple trees where they mature into a rust that damages the leaves of the apple tree. The different stages of development are thus noted on each of affected cedar and apple trees. In each case, the fungus is a harmful parasite. We cut down the two small cedars on our property that hosted the fungus, as a means of protecting our apple trees. So, the only stage of the fungus seen here is the brown nodules found on the cedar.

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Very interesting post to say the least!!

I'm just blown away by the intense bluing of some these fungi when cut or tampered with. Fruiting fungi continue to amaze me in so many ways each day.

Very interesting about the last one Dave. How exactly was is possible to come up with the theory about jumping from the fir tree to apple trees?

Or you can just point me to a website I can read up on.

Thanks

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CajunShroomer, just Google "cedar apple rust"; and you will find lots of information. The cedars Dave referred to are actually Eastern Red-cedars, which are a type of juniper. The rust infects a number of junipers; here on the west coast we have a similar rust that infects pear trees along with junipers.

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My understanding is that the cedar rust has a symbiotic relationship with the cedars and some apple trees. That is to say it will migrate from one to the other in alternate years.I have a cedar 15 feet from my yellow delicious and they are not affected but about 35 feet away is my red delicious and it's eat up with rust. Strange how it thrives on certain varieties and not others,

Wade

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