Within the last week or so, we have been finding this mushroom, which we had never encountered before.  Nicknamed the Elm Oyster, it used to be in the same genus as our usual spring and fall oyster fungi, but now is classified under a separate genus: Hypsizygus  tessellatus.  A couple of features really stand out on this wood-dwelling fungus including the appearance of what look like water spots on the top of the cap and a stem that is off-centered on the cap.  We have been finding it on dead maple and aspen.
         In addition to these mushrooms, we have also been finding an abundance of stumpies (Armillaria mellea) as well as their aborted form, the Pig Snouts.

Found our first stumpies (Armillaria mellea) today! Just tiny ones popping out, so check your spots in the next couple of days and report back.

This has been the summer of the  Sulfur Shelf. In almost any year, a woodland hiker will come upon the impressive
bright orange and sulfur- yellow shelf fungus that is commonly called Chicken of  the Woods. This summer, the changeable weather, with cycles of very hot and dry  days and cool and rainy times seems to have spurred  a succession of fruitings  of this very large, showy mushroom.  Often Red Oak trees and oak stumps are  found engulfed in a growth of the mushroom shelving . For the live tree it is a  kind of death knell, as this parasitic fungus gradually consumes the tree’s  heartwood. Even after the tree falls, Sulfur Shelf continues to fruit and take  nourishment from the wood.

The recent rains have prompted lots of mushrooms to fruit. Yesterday's foray yielded lots of great edibles, chanterelles, lobsters, chicken of the woods, boletes and puffballs, just to name a few. Hope everyone else is enjoying their finds! It's a good time to get out and do some mushrooming.

Club member, Chris H had a great day of picking. Not only did she fill a grocery bag of Suillus granulatis, but she found all of these edible varieties. She had a hard time deciding which to eat for dinner.

We have been seeing a fair number of Jana's Boletes (Boletus sphaerocystis) over the past week.  Two of our club members went to the wrong trailhead for this week's hike.  Lucky for them, there was a nice growth of these tasty boletes which they had all to themselves.  The brought their baskets-full to the foray to gloat:)

The response to moisture by fungi is amazing.  Logs are suddenly jeweled with fruitings and the woodland grasses are pushed aside by immerging  mushrooms with caps and stems firm and fresh, hydro powered. We discovered a clump of cream-white, robust fruitings of Veiled Oyster (Pleurotus dryinus) that must have developed in an overnight  burst of energy. This large edible mushroom  grows on deciduous trees, often on birch and aspen in our area. Caps can be 5 inches across, initially with an inrolled margin.  Stems are tough and thick.  There is suggestion of a ring on the upper stem. As with other Oyster mushrooms, there is a scent of anise.