Martha+Tom

Fungal Finds in New York & New England

shelf mushrooms and moss

Tom and I visited New York, Vermont, Massachusetts, and Connecticut (four states!) over Easter and shared some great walks with my brother and sister near each of their new homes. In terms of fungal activity, it’s a little early for morels and off-season for the many summer and fall varieties, but I still kept an eye to the ground. Before Tom’s arrival, Marcela and I enjoyed an early evening walk at Lisha Kill Preserve, a nice wooded spot operated by the Nature Conservancy near Schenectady, NY. We found “fields” of Skunk Cabbage and a few colorful fungi.

Witch's Butter on a log

I believe the above is Witch’s Butter, a fungus I first encountered while on a hike in Muir Woods with Tom and his older brother Mike, the Nehil family’s unofficial mushroom expert.

little brown mushroom on a stump

If I could coin a name for these little brown mushrooms (above and below), I’d call them Penny Mushrooms. They had a small foot that attached to this decaying log and a fantastic round shape.

little brown mushrooms from above

white mushroom on a tree trunk

a mushroom keyboard

Tom and I discovered these white and rust-colored friends while on a walk with my older brother, his partner Sabrina, and my sister Marcela in New Haven, CT.

white flat mushroom on a sticksurprise red underside of white flat mushroom on a stick

If you’re reading and know (or have a guess about) the names of any of these  fungi, please share in the comments.

 

2 comments | , , , , , ,

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2 comments on “Fungal Finds in New York & New England”

  1. Marcela 4 May, 2011 at 7:22 pm

    Four states!
    Beautiful photos.

  2. Trout Caviar 5 May, 2011 at 7:20 am

    Fantastic. You guys have the true naturalist/mycologist spirit–there are so many fascinating and beautiful fungi out there besides the ones you can eat. As for ID, I’ve never really tried to specifically identify the shelf fungi, have just appreciated them. The yellow one looks to be a type of jelly fungus–some of those are edible, prized more for texture than taste.

    Brett