Annually, in the Fall, I visit some of the fallen trees in the woods of Eliza Howell Park, looking for mushrooms. I usually find some; sometimes I find many – and varied – ones. This is a many-and-varied year.
The most common are fan-shaped, usually just anout two inches wide, commonly found in groupings.
— NOTE: My practice is not to name mushrooms in print, except in cases where the identity is unmistable. I am not an expert and do not want someone to use my potentially mistaken identification when foragong for mushrooms to eat. —
I enjoy finding these fan-shaped mushrooms, coming as they do in a variety of colors.
This year I am also finding a variety of other log-growing mushrooms, some of which are much less familiar.
These chocolate-colored (ear-shaped?) fungi are ones that I finding for the first time in the park this year, though they are obviously well established on this log.t
A mushroom is the fruiting part of a fungus, the part that appears above the surface of ground or wood and contains the spores.
They come in many sizes and shapes. These are some spotted on logs this week:
In the midst of these unusual mushrooms (unusual in my Eliza Howell experience), there is something satisfying to come across a more familiar and solid shelf fungus on the side of a large log.
Fall is the best time to go fingus finding among the logs in Eliza Howell Park — and this is a great year to do it.
Eliza Howell Nature Walks 