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Mushrooms of Vermont

Mushrooms In Vermont

Trumpet Shaped Polypore

Golden Coral Mushroom

Amazing What Mushrooms You Can Find In The Cracks Of Driftwood

Bracket or Polypore Mushrooms

Bracket or Polypore Mushrooms

Lumpy Bracket

 Trametes Gibbosa

Tinder Conk

 Polypore Mushrooms, Hoof Fungus, Fomes fomentarius

Purple Gilled Laccaria

Some Mushrooms Are Rather Fancy, like this one with a knobbed cap, wine colored gills, and a blue glow at the base of the stem.

Velvet Shank Mushrooms Cluster On A Tree Trunk

Edible 

Velvet Shank Mushrooms Cluster On A Tree Trunk

Pheasant Back Mushrooms,

also known as Dryad’s Saddle (Polyporus squamosus), or hawks wing. Perhaps the easiest edible mushroom to find during the spring months is Dryad’s Saddle. It's a common decomposer of dead trees. While it seems to have an affinity for dead elm trees, Dryad’s Saddle can inhabit box elder trees, ash trees, maple trees, and other hardwood trees. Additionally, spores from Dryad’s Saddle can inoculate and eventually parasitize living hardwood trees. They smell like cucumber or watermelon rind when freshly cut. Edible.

Lilac Cort Mushroom
Cortinarius iodes, also known as the spotted cort, or the viscid violet cort.

Fuzzy Purple Fungus

Conocybe Mushroom

Dyer's Polypore
Phaeolus schweinitzii, also known as velvet-top fungus, dyer's mazegill, or pine dye polypore, is a fungal plant pathogen that causes butt rot on conifers such as Douglas-fir, spruce, fir, hemlock, pine, and larch. It is a polypore, although unlike bracket fungi the fruiting body is often seen growing from the roots or base of the host tree. The fruiting bodies, appearing in late summer or fall, commonly incorporate blades of grass, twigs, or fallen pine needles as they grow. As it's name suggests, the dyer's polypore is an excellent natural source of green, yellow, gold, or brown dye, depending on the material dyed and the mordant used.

Teeny Tiny Mushroom

This is one of the smallest I've ever seen. The tiny acorn next to it is 1/4" across. Found in Essex, Vt.

Amanita Jacksonii Mushroom

This is one of the few that are edible.

Amanita Jacksonii Mushroom

opening.

Blewit

Clitocybe nuda (also recognized as Lepista nuda and Tricholoma nudum, commonly known as the wood blewit or blue stalk mushroom), is found in both coniferous and deciduous woodlands. Wood blewits are generally regarded as edible mushrooms as long as they're cooked thoroughly. It has a distinctive, strong flavour and smells faintly of aniseed, however, there are cases of it causing allergic reactions when eaten raw, and in some people even when it's cooked.  It can also be used as a dye, resulting in a green-grass colour – not purple or pink as might be expected.

This fungi is strongly associated with magic.

Chanterelle

Golden Chanterelle, Cantharellus cibarius 

Identification: Cap yellow to orange, funnel-shape; gills shallow, yellow, blunt, and run down the yellow stalk. Season of fruiting: Summer-fall, Mycorrhizal with pine and upland hardwoods Edibility: Choice 

The Cantharellus mushrooms are known worldwide as chantherelles and are some of the very best edible mushrooms. Chantherelles are always found growing from soil, unlike false chantherelles (Hygrophoropsis aurantiaca) that are found on woody debris. The Chanterelle is found and enjoyed by people all over the world. It has many names, pfifferling, girolle, gallinacci, in this country, it goes by the name chanterelle or occasionally by golden chanterelle.

Hemistropharia albocrenulata. 

This Mushroom looks like something out of a fairy garden. Found in Bolton, Vermont

Mushrooms Growing On A Mushroom 
Silky Piggyback Mushrooms
Asterophora Parasitic

Amanita Mushroom

Old Man Of The Woods
The scientific name, Strobilomyces floccopus, roughly translated, means "wooly mushroom that looks like a pine cone" The Old Man is prominently wooly and scaly, a mixture of black and white and gray, and, overall, rather unkempt. This edible bolete has white flesh showing between dark, large, shaggy, soft, flattened scales; Stalk slightly enlarged toward the base; grayish black; texture woolly, shaggy; solid. Partial veil grayish, sometimes leaving one or two woolly ring zones on the stalk. Preferably harvested young It’s taste is not regarded as great.
You pretty much need a microscopic test to tell the three types of Old Man apart and it makes no difference from a practical point of view. Strobilomyces is the most common & often has a distinct ring zone on the stem.

Stinkhorn Mushroom

Mutinus elegans, commonly known as the elegant stinkhorn, the dog stinkhorn, the headless stinkhorn, or the devil's dipstick, is a species of fungus in the Phallaceae family. The tip is covered with a foul-smelling slimy spore mass. Flies and other insects feed upon the slime which contains the  spores, assisting in their dispersal. 

Despite their repulsive smell, most species of stinkhorn mushrooms are not considered poisonous, and some varieties are edible in the egg stage. Some species are even considered delicacies in some parts of the world. However, even though no human deaths have been reported and associated with the consumption of these fungi, due to the lack of  studies on the toxicity of stinkhorn mushrooms we cannot say that the consumption of these mushrooms is safe for humans, as well as which species are edible and which are not.

Since they are edible only in the egg stage, when they do not emit an unpleasant odor, this makes them hard to identify and they can be easily confused with other varieties of toxic mushrooms.

Orange Mycena Mushrooms

A Most Interesting Pattern On The Underside Of A Mushroom. 

Hexagonal-Pored Polypore, Polyporus alveolaris, Neofavolus alveolaris.  Found on sticks and decaying logs, its distinguishing features are its yellowish to orange scaly cap, and the hexagonal or diamond-shaped pores. Opinions are divided on the edibility of this species. 

Indigo milk cap

Lactarius indigo, or the blue milk mushroom, is a species of agaric fungus in the family Russulaceae. This is a strikingly unique mushroom that is bluish, bleeds blue when cut; then turns somewhat greenish or bruises greenish. Indigo milk cap is edible, and be sure to cook it if fresh. When cooked it often stains green and will stain whatever it is cooked with as well. Traditionally cooked with eggs, I've heard this is the origin of green eggs and ham. The flavor is similar to a portobello when cooked, but with a grainier texture. It dehydrates well for later uses.

I love the way this brown and white mushroom curls up into an interesting shape.

Crowded Parchment Fungi

 (Stereum complicatum) is a common, widely distributed, wood decaying, bracket fungi. It is found from spring through fall as fused masses or dense, overlapping clusters on stumps, logs, and sticks of hardwood trees, especially oak.

Tiny White Mushroom

Growing in Moss.

Northern Toothed Polypore Fungi 

clusters on A big old Maple Tree.

The northern tooth, scientifically known as Climacodon septentrionalis. It's Latin name, ‘septentrionalis,’ translates to ‘northern,’ as in, ‘from the direction of the north wind.’ The genus name, Climacodon, translates to ‘ladder teeth.’ The name northern tooth is a translation of the scientific name, “ladder teeth from the north.”

The fruiting bodies of Climacodon septentrionalis are extremely durable and can last for many weeks. The mushroom is parasitic, causing a heartwood rot, and is especially fond of sugar maples and beech; it is frequently found growing from the wounds of these trees, high above the ground.

Forage Only When Necessary: 

Do Not over harvest wild foods. Foraging is fun, but remember that as a human, you have the ability to source your food in other places - wildlife does not. If you must forage for food, mushrooms, or herbs for an ailment, only harvest 10% -15% of what you see of any plant or patch you find, so it has a good chance to keep growing and come back next year. Remember that other lives depend on it. Also, mushrooms and fungi are essential to the health of the forest. As decomposers that effectively degrade structural compounds in wood and plant-derived cellulose, they create fertile soil and healthy forests.

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Disclaimer

My blog is meant to inform and I strive to be totally accurate. It is solely up to the reader to ensure proper plant identification. Some wild plants and mushrooms are poisonous or can have serious adverse health effects.

Although I provide information about edibility and medicinal uses, DO NOT eat or use any mushroom unless you are absolutely certain of its identity: many mushroom species look alike and some species are highly poisonous.