Frontenac Park: Doe Lake Trail

LBM

Little brown mushroom
Lemoine Point, Kingston
7 January 2007

The mild rainy weather was just what was needed to encourage the appearance of this fungal fruit. Little brown mushrooms are notoriously difficult to identify but it was nice to be able to do a little mushroom hunting in January.

Striate Bird's Nest Fungus

Cyathus striatus
Lemoine Point, Kingston, Ontario
7 January 2007

Entoloma

Entoloma
Algonquin Provincial Park, Bat Lake
25 June 2006

Entoloma are very difficult to identify to species. The stain on the gills is indicative of the pink spore colour indicative of Entoloma. It looks something like Entoloma clypeatum in George Barron's "Mushrooms of Ontario and Eastern Canada," but it would only be guessing to label it as this species. For a description of the Rove Beetle in this picture, see under insects.

Honey I Shrunk the Giant Squid

Lemoine Point, Kingston, Ontario
27 September, 2005

I've often found the strangest looking little invertebrates associated with mushrooms. I have no idea what this one is. I need a decent camera with a macro lens to do justice to these little things.

Unidentified Mushroom

Lemoine Point, Kingston, Ontario
27 September, 2005

The cap is slimy and about 2.5cm across. The stalk is about 3.5 cm tall.

Unidentified Mushroom

November 03, 2005
Lemoine Point, Kingston, Ontario

(Somewhat late in the season but under the right conditions it doesn't take much for mushrooms to appear)

Unidentified Mushroom

May 27, 2006
Frontenac Provincial Park

Unidentified Mushroom

May 27, 2006
Frontenac Provincial Park

Unidentified Mushroom

May 27, 2006
Frontenac Provincial Park

Unidentified Mushroom

May 27, 2006
Frontenac Park

Unidentified Mushroom

Opinicon Road, Kingston
May 28, 2006

I've decided to start posting some of the Fungi that I have not been able to identify. This probably represents about seventy percent of all the mushrooms I've found. I thought this one would be easy to label but even with four massive field guides I couldn't come up with an identification. It would have helped a lot if I could have obtained a spore print but it is rarely convenient to do that when the main purpose of the trip is birding.

Fomitopsis pinicola

Algonquin Provincial Park, Bat Lake
25 June, 2006

I believe that these are three different examples of the same species. All growing on dead stumps and commonly called the Red-belted Polypore. Roger Phillips (Mushrooms and Other Fungi of North America) says that this is the most commonly collected Polypore in North America.

Suillus granulatus

Algonquin Park, Bat Lake
25 June, 2006

This was growing beside the path in some moss. The roots were anchored to the rootlet of a coniferous tree. The cap was 7.5 cm. The stem was 8 cm. The flesh inside the cap is white. The brown skin peels off easily to reveal the white flesh.
Identifying almost any mushroom can be very difficult. In this case one look at the pore surface tells you that it is a Bolete. The two subgroups, Boletus and Tylopilus usually have stalks that are covered with a network of veins (i.e. are reticulate). In the subgroup Leccinum the stalk is always Scabrous. In the subgroup Suillus the stalk frequently has these speckled, glabrous, dots. All of this I determined from looking at "Mushrooms Demystified" by David Arora. I then went to the key in "Mushrooms of Northeastern North America" by Bessette, Bessette, and Fischer and looked at the key for Suillus. This guide is my first choice because it deals only with mushrooms of the Northeastern area. The description and picture of S. granulatus best met the mushroom that I was looking at.

Lycogala epidendrum

Wolf's-milk Slime
Frontenac Provincial Park
27 May 2006

Just to give you an idea of how difficult identification of mushrooms can be - I checked five guides and found this mushroom in only one guide, even though that guide listed it as widely distributed in North America.

Peziza phyllogena

Common Brown Cup
(a.k.a. Peziza badio-confusa)
Frontenac Provincial Park
27 May, 2006

Polyporus squamosus

Dryad's Saddle
Frontenac Provincial Park
May 27, 2006

Spring-like day at The Point

Yesterday it poured rain. This morning it was plus 5C and partly sunny. All of the snow is gone from the woods and the rocks and trees are covered in fresh green moss. Many fungi that fruit on dead wood are abundant. I found three new species, posted below, and lots of Trametes versicolor (Turkey Tail). One Hairy Woodpecker tried to get my attention but today I am a mycologist and must ignore such distractions.

Polyporus elegans

Lemoine Point, Kingston, Ontario

4 February, 2006

This is a Stalked Polypore. The cap is 3 cm and was quite slimy (it was a very wet day).

Oligoporus fragilis

Lemoine Point, Kingston, Ontario

4 February, 2006

Commonly known as Staining Cheese Polypore this is a member of the Fleshy to Fibrous-tough, Shelf-like Polypore group.