#happyfungalfriday

[friendlyearthling]

The Kingdom Fungi is one of the most diverse groups on Earth, second only to insects. Due to their cryptic nature - living underground/inside other things, only showing up to reproduce and then having small bodies, not easily leaving behind fossils - understanding fungal diversity and the relatedness between species is still an ongoing process. • These species pictured all decompose for a living, but they’re not closely related at all! They are 10 species from 3 phyla: Basidiomycetes (mushroom formers), Ascomycetes (some mushrooms, lots of molds and yeasts), and Zygomycetes (also named Mucoromycetes, names are constantly changing). • Also how cool is it to see the colors change depending on the background?!

[friendlyearthling]

Dead man’s fingers. Unless you’re talking about the decomposer fungus, Xylaria, you don’t want to find them in the forest! Xylaria take a dead log and eat the polysaccharides, leaving the juicy cellulose and lignin for other fungi and microorganisms to devour. #HappyFungalFriday #xylaria #deadmansfingers #stumpmushrooms #mushroomlove #fungusamongus #fungalfriday (at Blue Mound State Park)

[friendlyearthling]

Here’s some #frontyardfungi for your #fungalfriday enjoyment from the fall! This is my plea to Wisconsin to give me a few more warm days before the below-freezing days start in earnest! Check out that blue #lichen! #HappyFungalFriday !! #mushroomlove

[friendlyearthling]

If you can’t blend in, stand out! Not all fungi are good at camouflaging with their surroundings! This unidentified bright red cluster was sitting on top of a big rock among these lichens and mosses. At least they’re cute! #HappyFungalFriday #camoflage #FUNGIFRIDAY #fungalfriends #mushroomforeveryone #fungalfriday #lichenlove #moremoss #mushroomlove

[friendlyearthling]

Happy Fungal Friday!!! This brilliant purple-filled mushroom is the aptly named Laccaria ochropurpurea from last week's celebratory mushroom hunt! The Purple Gilled Laccaria is ectomycorrhizal and can be found in large groups in late summer/ fall east of the Rockies. #happyfungalfriday #purplemushroom #purplelaccaria #fungalforay #mushroomfamily #mushroomfriends #fungalfriday #FungiFriday (at Governor Dodge State Park)

[friendlyearthling]

Dryad's saddle, or Polyporus squamosus, is a beautiful saprotrophic (eats dead plants) fungus, found spring thru fall in WI. These specimens were found growing from a live hardwood tree, although usually P squamosus can be found on downed logs. A fun(gal) anecdote: dryads are nymphs (in folklore and Greek mythology) who inhabit a forest or tree. So these mushrooms are where they sit and chill, apparently! #happyfungalfriday #polyporussquamosus #dryadssaddle #mushroomforeveryone #mushroomfriends #fungalfriday #hawkswingmushroom #mushroommushroom

[friendlyearthling]

Happy Fungal Friday!! Here is a Thelephora species that were all over the Unicoi state park in GA last weekend for #msa17! Thelephora are ectomycorrhizal (rhiza= root, myco= fungus, ecto= outside), fungi which exchange nutrients mutualistically with plants. Some ectomycorrhizal fungi are specialists and only interact with specific plants, but Thelephora is thought to be a generalist, able to form ectomycorrhzae with multiple different plant hosts. This week I attended the Mycological Society of America's annual conference in Athens, GA. I got to talk about the research I've been doing and hear 3 days of talks from other people's exciting research! The Mycology community is so friendly and collaborative, and always eager to help push science forward! #happyfungalfriday #thelephora #mycology #msa2017 #fungifriends #fungalfriday (at Unicoi State Park)

[friendlyearthling]

Morchella species, like this yellow #morel are easy to distinguish from other fungi by their brain-like structure. They're also ridiculously tasty. Identifying them to species can be challenging though, especially in the Great Lakes region where Morchella esculentoides and Morchella cryptica live in the same habitats and look nearly identical. The species epithet "cryptica" denotes that this mushroom is a cryptic species, in other words, very hard to distinguish without a DNA sequence. Happy #fungalfriday to all! #happyfungalfriday #mushroomhunter #mushroomlove #morchella #mushroombasket (at Kettle Moraine: Nordic Trailhead)

[friendlyearthling]

Happy Fungal Friday!! In theme with our weird looking mushrooms of February (see last week’s Earth Tongues!), I present to you this False Morel, Gyromitra infula! This odd cap is pinched into 3-lobes, but similar to true morels does not have gills as they are ascomycetes. Some false morels are actually poisonous (let alone not very tasty) so be sure you know what your fungus is before trying to eat it! It is advised to NOT eat any fungi unless an expert has identified it as edible! This was found in the UP Michigan on a fallen log, contently sucking all the available nutrients of the dead tree.

[friendlyearthling]

Have you ever seen something when you were walking outside and said, “is that a fungus?” Next time that happens, investigate! Is it squishy? Growing on/near a tree? Mushroom shaped or amorphous? Bring back your childhood imagination to explore your surroundings! I said “is that a fungus?” when I found this slightly frozen Hen of the woods, and upon investigation, I was right! It’s now dried up and way beyond its prime (though when fresh I hear these are quite tasty!), but it is in fact a fungus! #HappyFungalFriday #mushroomforeveryone #fungusamongus #fungifanatic #fungalfriday #fungifriday #henofthewoods #grifolafrondosa (at University of Wisconsin-Madison)

[friendlyearthling]

The colors and textures on this would-be-plain-ol' shelf mushroom on a stump make me so happy!! Can you count all the different browns on this baby? And that guttation is to die for 😍 Like rings on a tree, this type of fungus shows its age by bands of different colors. The white is new growth this growing season. #brownisbeautiful #happyfungalfriday #happymushroomday #guttation #golfcoursemushrooms #fungalfriday #stumpmushrooms (at Odana Hills Golf Course)

[friendlyearthling]

Dreaming of summer strolls in the woods and finding these amazing #ganodermatsugae fungi! Ganoderma mushrooms are used medicinally throughout the world and are called #reishi They are thought to balance the human immune system, in addition to being badass decomposers of trees! I personally admire them for their brilliant variety of colors and their ability to become quite large! #HappyFungalFriday to all this first Friday of 2018! •