Fun guy morning

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I was dragged in by the forces of nature! Indeed, it happens on a daily basis. This morning the fun guy (fungi) force grabbed me. 😉 Furthermore, the fun guy disrupted my plans for the day. What can I do, but go with the flow.

The line of storms passed us by 8am. We got .62′ rain. Edgar’s old childhood home did just fine. However, some people were not so lucky this morning. 🙁

Nearby a group of mushrooms had popped up.

Indeed, some even looked like they were made of glass.

The mushrooms were free gilled. So this means the gills do not attach directly to the stem.

One was tied down like it was in Gulliver’s Travels.

From the view point of the small people in Gulliver’s Travels.

I called this one, the plumber’s crack. Soon I was back at the house. However, the force was too strong. Hence, I went back to collect a specimen. LOL.

First shot!

Second, a close up of the free gills!

Third, the volva! The volva is the cup-like structure at the base of a mushroom.

Fourth, a spore print was in order. Lay the cap down on a clean piece of paper.

Fifth step, wait a bit and the spores fall on the paper. Indeed, this is pretty cool, eh! Additionally the color of the spores are important.

Last, examine and measure the spores under the microscope. Also important. All the features pointed to Volvopluteus gloiocephalus. Commonly called Big Sheath mushroom, Rose-gilled Grisette or Stubble Rosegill. A fun guy found on all continents except Antarctica. (Wikipedia).

In addition to the above fun guy, I found the Common Split Gill (Schizophyllum commune).

Last pretty one for the day was the Stalked Lattice Stinkhorn (Lysurus periphragmoides). Always a fun guy to find!
Update and correction: Thanks to Becky for posting her stinkhorn on iNat and learning about the new legitimate name, Simblum sphaerocephalum. For the first ID of the stinkhorn, I had used the Mushrooms of the Gulf Coast States: A Field Guide to Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida by Alan E. Bessette, Arleen R. Bessette, et al. published in Jul 15, 2019.
However, according to Michael Kuo (https://www.mushroomexpert.com/index.html) before 2018 everyone called it Lysurus periphragmoides. And that is what I identified it as. So by the time the aforementioned book was published it was determined to be Simblum sphaerocephalum. I bet the book was already finished and ready to go to print as it was.

The sorted story by Michael Kuo can be found here…https://www.mushroomexpert.com/lysurus_species_01.html  I will be changing my notes to reflect the new name. 

So Aidan on iNat used the current understanding of the species. Becky’s post is here. Thanks Becky!

Thus, if you find yourself being guided by the “forces”…enjoy! Certainly, I had fun. So tomorrow, I will get back to the original plan…maybe.

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Keep looking!

The more you know, the more you see and the more you see, the more you know

12 Comments

  1. Great shot of the free gills! And thanks for the how to on the spore prints.
    I looked at the meteor details, thanks. We bought folding lounge chairs awhile back for night sky viewing. I saw that listed on my weather station and wondered. I love my weather station. Thanks for the recommendation.

    Reply

      1. We tried to watch the meteor shower last night but the clouds were obscuring the sky.
        Tonight we hit the jackpot.
        We bundled up since it was 38 degrees out there. Laid on our lounge chairs so we could look straight up. Orion was to our east a bit and it was 10:15pm. This is Dec 14th. In 15 minutes time we saw 9. Most were in the western half of the sky. Even though we live in the country we have a bright horizon to the northeast, southwest and south but we still saw them very easily. Very pleased!

        Reply

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