Xanthoconium affine

https://www.mushroomexpert.com/Xanthoconium_affine.html

Ecology: Mycorrhizal with hardwoods (especially oaks and beech) and perhaps rarely with conifers; growing alone, scattered, or gregariously; summer and fall; widely distributed east of the Rocky Mountains, south to Mexico. The illustrated and described collections are from Michigan, Illinois, and Kentucky.

Cap: 2-9 cm across, convex, becoming broadly convex or nearly flat; dry; very minutely velvety when in the button stage, but soon bald; brown to dark brown or yellow-brown; sometimes conspicuously spotted with whitish to yellowish spots ("var. maculosus").

Pore Surface: Whitish, becoming brownish yellow and eventually yellowish brown; not bruising, or bruising dull yellowish brown; pores circular to angular, 1-2 per mm; tubes to 5-15 mm deep.

Stem: 3-8 cm long; 0.5-2 cm thick; at maturity more or less equal; solid; bald; pale at apex, streaked with a paler shade of the cap color below; not reticulate--or, in "var. reticulatum," reticulate near the apex; basal mycelium white.

Flesh: Whitish throughout, unchanging when sliced, or occasionally staining slightly yellowish over time.

Odor and Taste: Not distinctive.

Chemical Reactions: Ammonia negative to pinkish or orangish on cap surface; negative on flesh. KOH negative to pinkish on cap surface; negative on flesh. Iron salts negative on cap surface; negative on flesh.

Spore Print: Bright yellow-brown.

Microscopic Features: Spores 9-14 x 3-4 ; subfusiform; smooth; yellowish to golden in KOH. Hymenial cystidia lageniform; to about 50 x 10 . Pileipellis a tightly packed trichoderm with clavate or subclavate terminal elements 7.5-12.5 wide (an "epithelium" or hymeniform turf); hyaline to ochraceous or brownish in KOH.

Entoloma versatile

https://www.mushroomexpert.com/Entoloma_versatile.html

Ecology: Saprobic; growing gregariously in bare soil under oaks and other hardwoods; fall; North American distribution uncertain (the illustrated and described collection was made in Illinois; see also the comments above about reports from Washington and Iowa).

Cap: 1-2 cm; conic to broadly conic; dry; finely radially fibrillose and silky; dark brownish olive; the margin not lined.

Gills: Narrowly attached to the stem; nearly distant; dull brownish at first, becoming darker brownish with a pinkish hue.

Stem: 3-6 cm long; 1-3 mm thick; equal, or slightly tapered toward the apex; dry; finely fibrillose or nearly bald; whitish; discoloring brownish to yellowish near the base; base with stiff whitish hairs.

Flesh: Thin; insubstantial; whitish to brownish.

Odor and Taste: Odor unpleasant; taste mealy.

Chemical Reactions: KOH on cap surface negative.

Spore Print: Pink.

Microscopic Features: Spores 7-11 x 5-7 ; mostly 6-sided; heterodiametric; angular; smooth; hyaline. Pleurocystidia absent. Cheilocystidia abundant; mostly lageniform with a long, pointed neck, but occasionally widely fusiform or subsaccate (when collapsed); 35-65 x 12-20 . Pileipellis a cutis; elements brown to brownish in 10% ammonia, finely encrusted, 5-10 &#181 wide. Clamp connections not found.

Rickenella fibula

https://www.mushroomexpert.com/Rickenella_fibula.html

Ecology: Probably saprobic but apparently involved in some sort of mutualism with moss; growing alone, scattered, or gregariously in moss beds; spring through fall, or over winter in warm climates; widely distributed in North America. The illustrated and described collections are from Illinois.

Cap: 2-10 mm across; blocky or squarish at first, becoming convex, then broadly convex, with or without a shallow central depression; tacky when fresh but soon dry; bald or, with a hand lens, very finely hairy; the margin translucent-lined by maturity; orange with a whitish margin when fresh and young; soon fading to yellowish orange overall, with a darker orange center.

Gills: Running deeply down the stem; distant or nearly so; short-gills in several tiers; creamy or very pale orange.

Stem: 5-45 mm long; 0.5-1.5 mm thick; equal; dry; bald; colored like the cap; basal mycelium white.

Flesh: Insubstantial; pale.

Odor and Taste: Not distinctive

Chemical Reactions: KOH negative on cap surface.

Spore Print: White.

Microscopic Features: Spores 3-4 x 1.5-2.5 m; ellipsoid; smooth; hyaline and 1- to 3-guttulate in KOH; inamyloid. Cheilocystidia and pleurocystidia 25-40 x 5-7.5 m; fusiform with tapered or subcapitate apices; thin-walled; hyaline in KOH; smooth. Pileipellis a tightly packed cutis with numerous pileocystidia 50-100 x 7.5-12.5 m, fusiform with wide bases and tapered, subcapitate, or capitate apices, thin-walled, smooth, hyaline in KOH.

Xylaria hypoxylon

https://www.mushroomexpert.com/Xylaria_hypoxylon.html

Ecology: Saprobic on the deadwood of hardwoods; growing gregariously to densely gregariously; spring through fall; by strict definitions (see discussion above) distributed in Europe and the West Coast of the United States, but (mis)reported as widely distributed in North America from Canada through Mexico—and in Central America, the Caribbean, South America, Africa, Asia, and Oceania. The illustrated and described collections are from California.

Anamorphic Fruiting Body: 2-10 cm long; 2-15 mm thick; either narrowly cylindric, with a pointy apex—or cylindric below but branched and flattened above, appearing somewhat like moose antlers, with tapering points on most branches; surface black and slightly fuzzy below, but powdery and gray to nearly white above; extreme apex attenuated, whitish to yellowish, and bald; sometimes with a rooting, black, stem-like structure; interior flesh white and tough.

Teleomorphic Fruiting Body: Shaped like the anamorphic fruiting body; surface black, bald, and finely pimply.

Odor: Not distinctive.

Microscopic Features: Conidia 5-11 x 2-3 m; fusiform; smooth; hyaline in water and in KOH. Spores 13-16 x 5-6 m; subfusoid to subellipsoid; smooth; brown to dark brown in water, with a single, straight germ slit extending the length of the spore. Asci 8-spored.

Hericium abietis

https://www.mushroomexpert.com/Hericium_abietis.html

Ecology: Saprobic and parasitic on the wood of conifers (including firs, Douglas-fir, and hemlock); growing alone; fall and winter; distributed from northern California to Idaho and Alaska. The illustrated and described collection is from Oregon.

Fruiting Body: 10-30+ cm across; consisting of tightly packed branches arising from a hidden, knob-like mass that is attached to the wood; branches 2-3 cm thick, smooth, adorned with fleshy spines; spines 0.5-1 cm long, up to 1 mm wide, white when fresh and young, bruising faintly brownish and eventually discoloring yellowish to brownish overall.

Flesh: White; not changing when sliced.

Odor and Taste: Not distinctive.

Spore Print: White.

Microscopic Features: Spores 4-5 x 4-4.5 m; subglobose; smooth or minutely roughened; uniguttulate in KOH; amyloid. Hymenial cystidia 30-45 x 3-4 m; cylindric; flexuous; apices rounded or subclavate; smooth; thin-walled; hyaline in KOH. Hyphal system dimitic; gloeoplerous hyphae present; clamp connections present.

Perenniporia ohiensis

https://www.mushroomexpert.com/Perenniporia_ohiensis.html

Ecology: Saprobic on the deadwood of hardwoods; common on fence posts and rails (especially those of locust wood); causing a white rot; resupinate or, more commonly, with a cap; perennial; found year-round (especially in warmer climates) but generally appearing in summer and fall; fairly widely distributed in North America from the East Coast to the Rocky Mountains and the Southwest, but apparently absent or rare on the West Coast and in the Pacific Northwest.

Fruiting Body: Sometimes lacking a cap but usually with a tough, hoof-shaped cap measuring up to 2 cm across; upper surface smooth or finely velvety, whitish at first, becoming brownish and eventually black, often with a zoned appearance; pore surface ivory white, the pores surrounded by thick walls; 3-7 pores per mm; tubes to 4 mm deep per layer; flesh woody and tough, whitish to brownish; stem absent.

Odor and Taste: Not distinctive.

Chemical Reactions: Cap surface red to blackish with KOH.

Spore Print: Presumably white, but not documented (I have not tried to obtain one).

Microscopic Features: Spores 13-16 x 7-10 (but my collections frequently feature smaller spores, measuring 8-11 x 5-6 ); smooth; elliptical, with a severely truncated end; hyaline in KOH; in Melzer's sometimes faintly or strongly dextrinoid; thick-walled. Cystidia absent. Hyphal system di- to trimitic.

No morels were found today! But I did come home with a bag full of ramps to serve with dinner tonight and we saw the early mayapples, poked at some spring flowers, and identified some nifty (but quite poisonous!) mushrooms. Not a bad day's walk!

Hydnellum suaveolens

https://www.mushroomexpert.com/Hydnellum_suaveolens.html

Ecology: Mycorrhizal with conifers (especially spruces); growing alone or gregariously; summer and fall; widely distributed in northern and montane North America, and on the West Coast from the San Francisco Bay Area northward. The illustrated and described collections are from Colorado and Oregon.

Cap: Usually single but occasionally fused with other caps; 5-15 cm wide; convex, becoming flat; dry; velvety; becoming wrinkled, ridged, or pitted (sometimes cracking up into scales); white to whitish or very pale yellowish when fresh and young, becoming dingy grayish to brownish or olive over the center.

Undersurface: Running down the stem; covered with crowded spines that are 3-7 mm long; whitish at first, becoming brownish to brown as the spores mature.

Stem: 2-5 cm long; 1-3 cm thick at apex; more or less stubby and cylindric; purplish blue; bruising blackish blue where handled; dry; velvety.

Flesh: Whitish to brownish, with zones of blue or brown (especially in the stem); tough but pliant.

Odor and Taste: Odor strong and fragrant or minty, often developing slowly after the mushroom is picked; taste mild.

Chemical Reactions: KOH on flesh bluish.

Spore Print: Brown.

Microscopic Features: Spores 4-6 x 2-4 m; irregular; nodulose; hyaline to brownish in KOH. Clamp connections present.

Entoloma luridum

https://www.mushroomexpert.com/Entoloma_luridum.html

Ecology: Saprobic (possibly mycorrhizal?); growing alone or gregariously under conifers; late summer and fall; originally described from Tennessee (Hesler 1967); distributed in eastern North America from the Great Lakes region to the Appalachians and the Maritime Provinces. The illustrated and described collection is from Wisconsin.

Cap: 5-8 cm across; broadly conic to broadly bell-shaped; bald; moist or dry; the margin becoming broadly wrinkled; pale creamy yellow; hygrophanous.

Gills: Narrowly attached to the stem; close; short-gills frequent; fairly bright yellow, becoming brownish pink as spores mature.

Stem: 6-10 cm long; 1-2 cm thick; equal or slightly tapered to apex; dry; bald; whitish to yellowish; basal mycelium white.

Flesh: Thick; white; unchanging when sliced.

Odor: Not distinctive.

Spore Print: Brownish pink.

Microscopic Features: Spores 5-10 x 5-7 m; angular; predominately 7-sided; subglobose to ellipsoid overall, with a large apiculus; smooth; thin-walled; hyaline in KOH; inamyloid. Basidia 35-40 x 6-10 m; clavate; 4-sterigmate. Hymenial cystidia not found. Pileipellis an ixocutis; elements 4-8 m wide, smooth, hyaline in KOH; subcutis of inflated elements. Clamp connections present.

Morchella frustrata

https://www.mushroomexpert.com/Morchella_frustrata.html

Ecology: Possibly saprobic and mycorrhizal at different points in its life cycle; growing alone, scattered, or gregariously under hardwoods (including Pacific madrone and oaks) and under conifers (including Douglas-fir, ponderosa pine; sugar pine, and white fir); spring; probably widely distributed in western North America but DNA-documented to date only from California and Oregon.

Cap: 4-6 cm tall and 2.5-4 cm wide; conical or nearly so; pitted and ridged, with the pits primarily arranged vertically; when young with bald, slightly flattened, yellowish to nearly whitish ridges and pits; when mature with sharpened or eroded, pale tan to yellowish ridges and pale tan to pale pinkish tan pits; attached to the stem with a small groove (2-4 mm deep); hollow.

Stem: 2-4 cm high and 1-2.5 cm wide; more or less equal, or sometimes a little swollen at the base; whitish; bald or finely mealy with granules; hollow.

Microscopic Features: Spores 20-29 x 14-19 ; smooth; elliptical; without oil droplets; contents homogeneous. Asci 8-spored. Paraphyses cylindric with subclavate or merely rounded apices; septate; hyaline to brownish in KOH. Elements on sterile ridges 100-175 x 12.5-20 ; septate; hyaline to brownish in KOH; terminal cell clavate or subclavate.

Thelephora americana

https://www.mushroomexpert.com/Thelephora_americana.html

Ecology: Mycorrhizal with oaks and other hardwoods; spreading terrestrially and forming clustered fruiting bodies; summer and fall; widely distributed in North America east of the Rocky Mountains. The illustrated and described collections are from Illinois and Ohio.

Fruiting Body: A spreading mass of cap-like structures 2-5 cm high, often fused laterally and/or forming rosettes; often engulfing twigs, leaves, and small branches.

Caps: 2-6 cm across; centrally depressed; irregular, but usually fan-shaped to semicircular; becoming radially wrinkled; dry; fibrillose to velvety; in old age sometimes breaking up into scales; grayish brown, with a paler, hairy margin when fresh; vaguely zoned.

Undersurfaces: Smooth when young, becoming wrinkled or, in old age, developing a slightly pimpled surface; pale gray, becoming grayish brown; bruising darker brown when mature; bald.

Flesh: Tough; 2-4 mm thick; pinkish brown to rusty brown; unchanging when sliced.

Odor: Not distinctive.

Chemical Reactions: KOH grayish to black on all surfaces and flesh.

Spore Print: I have not documented the spore print; probably brown.

Microscopic Features: Spores 6-9 x 5-6.5 (excluding ornamentation); irregular and angular; covered with spines that extend 0.5-1.5 ; golden to brownish in KOH. Basidia 2- to 4-sterigmate; to about 65 x 12 . Subhymenium not bluing in KOH. Tramal hyphae cylindric; 4-6 wide; thick-walled, smooth, and brownish to brown in KOH; often clamped at septa.

Russula compacta

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Ecology: Mycorrhizal with hardwoods, and with conifers in northern areas; growing scattered or gregariously; summer and fall; east of the Rocky Mountains, with range extending as far south as Costa Rica.

Cap: 3-18 cm; convex when young, later flat or broadly convex, often with a slightly sunken center; sticky when fresh; more or less smooth, the cap "skin" peeling about halfway to the center, sometimes breaking up in age; white to whitish or orangish yellow when young, but soon discoloring dirty yellowish to reddish brown, and in age appearing completely tawny brown; bruising reddish brown; the margin not lined.

Gills: Attached to the stem; crowded, close, or almost distant; white to cream, eventually yellowish cream; bruising and discoloring reddish brown.

Stem: 3-10 cm long; 1-3.5 cm thick; sturdy; more or less equal; dry; smooth; whitish, but soon flushed reddish brown; bruising reddish brown.

Flesh: White; discoloring yellowish to yellowish brown or reddish brown on exposure; thick.

Odor and Taste: Odor foul and somewhat fishy, the pungency increasing as the mushroom ages; odor of dried specimens strongly unpleasant; taste mild or slightly acrid.

Chemical Reactions: KOH on cap surface green to olive. Iron salts on stem surface and flesh grayish green.

Spore Print: White.

Microscopic Features: Spores 7-10 x 6-8.5 ; elliptical; ornamented with low warts extending to about .5 high; with scattered connectors that sometimes form partial, broken reticula. Pleurocystidia clavate to fusiform; abundant; negative in sulphovanillin. Pileipellis a cutis; pileocystidia absent.

Cystolepiota seminuda

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Ecology: Saprobic; growing alone or gregariously in hardwood and conifer forests, in humus or from well-decayed wood; late summer and fall; widely distributed throughout North America. The illustrated and described collection is from Illinois.

Cap: 1-3 cm; convex, expanding to bell-shaped or broadly convex, with a broad central bump; dry; covered with a powdery, granular dusting; white, developing reddish to pink spots; the margin not lined, hung with powdery veil remnants.

Gills: Free from the stem; close; short-gills frequent; white, becoming yellowish white.

Stem: 30-40 mm long; 1-2 mm thick; equal; when fresh and young covered with powdery material like the cap; becoming nearly bald; white when young, becoming reddish to pink from the base up; basal mycelium white and copious.

Flesh: Whitish; very thin.

Odor: Not distinctive.

Chemical Reactions: KOH negative on cap surface.

Spore Print: White.

Microscopic Features: Spores 4-5 x 1.5-2.5 ; cylindric to long-ellipsoid, or occasionally somewhat irregular; smooth; hyaline in KOH; yellowish in Melzer's. Basidia 4-sterigmate; to about <NOBR>18 x 5 .</NOBR> Hymenial cystidia not found. Pileipellis a cystoderm of subglobose, inflated elements 20-30 wide, hyaline in KOH. Clamp connections present.

Blumenavia rhacodes

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Ecology: Saprobic; growing alone or gregariously--often near stumps or woody debris; originally described from Brazil; distributed, at a minimum, from Brazil through Mexico and into Texas, but precise distribution limits are uncertain due to confusion with other species. The illustrated and described collection is from Texas.

Fruiting Body: When young appearing like a whitish to brown or black "egg," but soon "hatching" and developing into a cage-like structure measuring up to 13 cm high and 5 cm wide; oval in shape, composed of 3-5 unbranched, pale yellow to creamy whitish arms that are joined at the top; arms about 1-1.5 cm wide, in cross-section more or less triangular or four-sided, with the outer surface fairly flat (but lacking a pronounced longitudinal groove) and the inner surfaces more rough, punctuated by membranous flaps of tissue ("glebifers"); the edges between outer and inner surfaces often appearing jagged or "toothed"; spore slime dark brown, produced on the glebifers on the inner surfaces of the arms, from the top of each arm nearly to the bottom; bases of arms free, but encased in a whitish to dark gray, dark brown, or nearly black volva; base attached to prominent white rhizoids.

Microscopic Features: Spores 3-4 x 1-1.5 m; cylindric; smooth; hyaline in KOH; inamyloid. Hyphae of the volva 2-7 m wide; smooth; hyaline in KOH; with clamp connections.

Aleuria cestrica

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Ecology: Trophic role uncertain; possibly saprobic or mycorrhizal; growing gregariously on the ground under oaks and possibly other hardwoods, often in moss; late spring through fall; distributed in North America from the Great Plains eastward; also known from Central America and Europe. The illustrated and described collection is from Illinois.

Fruiting Body: Cup-shaped, becoming flattened with age; 2-5 mm across; without a stem.

Upper Surface: Bright orange when fresh, fading to brownish orange; bald.

Undersurface: Orange to pale orange; bald.

Flesh: Orangish; brittle.

Odor: Not distinctive.

Microscopic Features: Spores 6-10 x 3.5-5 m (without ornamentation); ornamentation as a well-developed reticulum 1-2 m high; developing polar apiculi 1-2.5 m long; smooth and ellipsoid before maturity; hyaline in KOH; yellowish in Melzer's. Asci 100-125 m long; 8-spored; tips inamyloid. Paraphyses 90-125 x 2-4 m; filiform below subclavate, straight or slightly curved apices; septate; smooth; with orangish contents in KOH; hyaline in Melzer's.