Favoritos de flowntheloop

rigid, nearly cup-like structures growing on a deciduous branch near a creek (lots of sweetgum, sycamore, oak, and maple nearby). will post more photos of the cross-sections/interiors--which are full of brown spores

Either ovina or subovina? Gills bruise red. Scattered in leaf litter in mixed conifer, holly, and broadleaf cove type forest. Broadleaf trees include oaks, both reds and whites, maples, tulip poplar, and magnolia. This forest area is well watered by a stream and shaded well by a mixed canopy that is mostly deciduous. Mushrooms are well camouflaged in leaf litter and not abundant.

I have been secretly wishing to find this beautiful crust fungus again for a couple of years now. I first found it near this location when were scoping out our (now acquired) land in Gordon County, GA, US. The shots I got back then were blurry and terrible, so hopefully I did this one a little bit better justice. <3 It was growing on the underside of a small to medium-sized (fallen) hardwood branch in a dense mixed forest valley. This location is quite moist as there are some springs that like to bubble up in the valley. January 7, 2020.

Growing on a hillside in moss at the edge of a densely forested area in FLoyd County, GA.

Pileus: Brown with golden undertones. Dry. Slightly lumpy/bumpy. Iron Salt reaction-slightly deeper yellow. KOH-yellow to amber. Ammonia- orange to yellow to olive tones. Nonstaining.

Flesh-pale gold. Nontaining. Iron salts-Negative. KOH-Pale yellow to gray. Ammonia-gray/olive.

Pore surface- bright yellow. Stains amber when touched/cut. Iron salts-negative. KOH-yellow to dark orange. Ammonia-yellow to amber.

Flavor-Acrid.

Description:

2 gasterocarps consisting of spherical gleba (spore sacs) covered in a yellow peridium atop tall golden stalks of intertwined hyphae that look similar to pasta or spaghetti squash. At the apex of each gleba are pink to red star-shaped pores. Spores are white to gray. Calostoma lutescens is one of the 20 gasteroid fungi belonging to the suborder Sclerodermatineae within the order Boletales. It is believed that fungi within the Calostoma genus underwent diversification within the Boletales order from end of the Cretaceous period through the middle of the Cenozoic era. C. lutescens is ectomycorrhizal with Quercus (oak) species.

Habitat:

The side of a ridge growing under an oak (in soil) in a dense mixed hardwood forest in Northwest Georgia

Dark orange, peach, pink, yellow, and blush colored mushrooms with pale orange to white veil remnants on pilei (caps). Pilei are highly variable in color and texture. Gills are cream to white and crowded with occasional short gills. Stipe is white and covered in veil remnants. A large, distinctly sac-like volva transitions into stipe fairly smoothly. Younger specimens still have white veils in tact. Older specimens have skirt-like annuli. Amanita persicina was once grouped in as a variety of Amanita muscaria, but DNA evidence shows A. persicina and A. muscaria as two distinct species.

Fungus on Vaccinium sp. on a forested trail.

From Page 44 of “Diseases of Trees and Shrubs - 2nd Edition” by Wayne A. Sinclair and Howard H. Lyon:
This inconsequential disease, which affects species of Gaylusaccia and Vaccinium, is caused by Ophiodothella vaccinii and characterized by distinctive colorful lesions...The pathogen occurs widely in southeastern USA and also in Illinois and California.

Rich peach to blush colored mushroom with pale orange veil remnants on pileus. Gills are cream to white and crowded. Stipe white and covered in veil remnants. A large, distinctly sac-like volva transitions into stipe fairly smoothly. Younger specimens still have white veils in tact. Older specimens have a skirt-like annulus. Amanita persicina was once grouped in as a variety of Amanita muscaria, but DNA evidence shows A. persicina and A. muscaria as two distinct species.

This fantastically stretchy fungus was discovered under the bark of what I'm assuming was a fallen/rotting loblolly pine (Virginia pine was nearby as well). In a moist mixed forest valley (near underground springs).There was infection throughout the interior wood as well. It felt like a mix between stretchy bubblegum and slightly sticky spider webs!

Check out this video for some stretchy goodness:
https://vimeo.com/504067873

Parasitized millipede found on a forested trail. I kept it in a plastic baggie and it bloomed into this.

See the original observation (where it was found in situ):
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/108790617