Ask the flist who knows all

[tamidon]

someone's gotta have the right books

I'm wondering what these mushrooms are?

this monster shows up every year.

this is pretty and weird and all through my woods

These look like chanterelles...frobzwiththingz is planning to find out tonight if they are edible or not.

Comments

Go here

[cintyber.livejournal.com]

http://gallery.cs.umb.edu/gallery/main.php?g2_itemId=321636

Re: Go here

[cintyber.livejournal.com]

the monster looks like turkey tail

[klingonlandlady.livejournal.com]

Pretty and weird: Indian Pipes! I think they're a kind of orchid, and i think endangered... they were springing up all through our woods about 3 weeks ago, now gone by. Lovely little things!

[tamidon.livejournal.com]

wikipedia says that's that's them (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_pipes) Weird, they have no chlorophyll and other strange stuff

[doctordidj.livejournal.com]

Indian Pipe is a flowering plant (not a fungus), but a saprophyte with no chlorophyll. It has symbiotic fungus in its roots that eat moist decaying stuff.

[fidgetmonster.livejournal.com]

Ooh, I haven't seen Indian pipes in sooo long. lucky you. I seem to remember there being some childhood lore/Indian legend related to them.

Don't know a thing about mushrooms, but the stuff in your grass all around the big monster mushroom is plantain.Its the one that looks like a minature hosta and gets a knotted green flower spike from the middle. Its medicinal use is that it's good in a pinch for stings and scrapes (masticate it then put on the area) and the tender leaves taste a little like arugula to me. So glad not all edible weeds taste like bitter dandelion!

[tamidon.livejournal.com]

the plantain I knew...the majority of my yard is plantain,moss and some sorrel, very little grass

[42itous.livejournal.com]

The orange ones are gorgeous!

[drbitch.livejournal.com]

The first one looks like a Slippery Jack relative, genus Suillus. Most of them are edible, though only a few are worth eating, and they upset some people's stomachs.

The monster is probably some kind of Polypore. Most of those are too tough/woody to be edible. It might be Hen-of-the-Woods/Maitake, which is food.

The bright orange ones might be Cinnabar Chanterelles, which are just as tasty as regular Chanterelles. Frobzwiththingz should be able to check them vs. False Chanterelles (not food) or Jack o'Lanterns (poisonous). If they were growing on the ground instead of on rotting wood, they're probably some form of Chanterelle.