Week Seven Madrona Park

Madrona Park
11/12/2014
42 Degrees F

The weather has become substantially colder here since last week, bits of the dirt trail have frozen and the ground feels much firmer under my feet. The canopy has thinned even more since last week, and the ground is littered with dead bigleaf maple leaves. Sean and I have come to Madrona park today in search of mushrooms and lichens. The fungi are quite elusive at this time of the season because they are hiding under the damp carpet of decaying leaves that cover the forest floor. Sean and I grab sticks and begin to turn over leaves in a similar manner to when we were hunting invertebrates. I was the first to find a cluster of odd yellow mushrooms growing out of the ground under some sword ferns.

This cluster of mushrooms have a round cap with scales, called a squamose cap. They are brown-yellow and only about an inch and a half to two inches tall. I believe they are Honey Mushrooms or Armillariella mellea that have yellowed because they are beginning to die and whither. 

Sean discovered the next one, a small piece of Oakmoss Lichen in a pile of leaves under a bigleaf maple tree. This lichen is known by it's latin name as Evernia prunastri. It has skinny feelers that branch out in all directions and is a very pretty pale green color. Lichens are a unique group of life because they are a combination of both a plant and a fungus, a fungus that can photosynthesize. This kind of lichen is seen attached to trees all over the puget sound region.

Oakmoss Lichen

I'm not entirely sure what kind of fungus this is, but going by the mushroom guide it appears to be some kind of galerina, these mushrooms were found growing out of the bottom of a decomposing log. They are a light brown and have striate caps (striate means the caps have lines). These little mushrooms don't look like they are doing so well in the cold weather.

Small striate capped mushrooms

This mushrooms was hiding under some fallen leaves. It resembles the mushrooms in the previous picture but has a smooth cap and is taller by about an inch and a half. It looks like it could be a Nolanea mushroom or a Conocybe. It appears quite healthy and isn't slimy or wet. 

Nolanea or Conocybe Mushroom

Many of these mushrooms have a very similar look of brown with round cap. The closer you look the more unique they each become. This fungi's cap stands apart from the last two because it doesn't droop, it sticks out like a tiny little umbrella. Instead of having a conic or bell shaped cap, it has an umbonate cap. It was found growing out of the ground.  

Small mushroom with an umbonate cap

This was my personal favorite find of the day. These lumpy fungi grew on the apple tree in my back yard as a child. I'm always fascinated by them because they are so ugly. Just a big weird lump eating away at your tree. These fungi are similar to an artist's fungus in that they are growing on a log, however, they are too small and lumpy, they aren't as organized looking and they aren't as big. I couldn't find a proper identification for this fungus. It's pale white and grows in both semi-circular growths and round lumps on the tops of logs.  

Unidentified tree and log fungus.

Since this week's blog was about mushrooms, I wanted to share a cool mushroom that I found away from my spot as well, I found this by my dorm at the University of Washington. I got a pretty sweet selfie with it before it was stomped into the ground by someone the day after. 

Here I am with a Fly Amanita or Amanita muscaria mushroom.