Wildflower Fungi

 

On this year's Wildflower Walk at Bull Mills we found several interesting mushrooms which were out to celebrate the recent rain and warm spell.  The ones above I misidentified as Jelly Ears, Auricularia angiospermanum, which are an ingredient in sweet and sour soup and we put in scrambled eggs.  Mark Bower* gently corrected me.

A. angiospermanum

"This is actually Exidia crenata, the Amber Jelly Roll, can be found growing on dead hardwood twigs. It can be found year-round, but seems to prefer cool weather. The fruiting bodies are gelatinous, and have concave depressions which are separated by sharp ridges."

 

 

Jelly ear and friends

Mark says it is commonly confused with our A. angiospermanum Jelly Ear which is larger and lacks ridges on the under-surface, and usually has a “frosty” appearance on its upper surface. It is important to clean your mushrooms carefully as seen in this specimen that made it into breakfast later without the millipedes.

Another cool find was these little brown cups. As is frequently the case in nature, their life story is much more interesting when told by an expert like Mark.

"Urnula craterium, the Devil’s Urn or Black Tulip Fungus, is a homely, goblet-shaped fungus which can be found fruiting from the undersurface of hardwood branches, but only if the branch is in contact with moist soil. It is a decomposer of hardwoods, preferring oak."

Strumella canker- Joseph O'Brein

"It appears in early spring, about the same time as morels. As with many fungi, this species can reproduce asexually and sexually, with dissimilar fruiting bodies. The asexual form (anamorph) causes Strumella Canker on oaks. The sexual form is the Devil’s Urn."

 * Mark has identified 447 species of fungi on our shared land along and above Bull Creek.  He is also an award winning fungi photographer and you can see some of his work at this Flickr link.