EatTheWeeds

The only chanterelle look-alike is jack-o'-lantern mushrooms, right?  I personally see no resemblance aside from color, especially since jack-o'-lanterns usually grow in groups. Or am I totally off base with my assessment? LOL

Thank you @Dave W! I sometimes use Google Lens to make a guess.  It's pretty good for identifying plants, but hit-or-miss when it comes to mushrooms, so I'm really grateful for real human expert opinions.  I found a recipe for umbrella polypore ramen, but any ideas for how to cook or preserve this? It's over a pound!

Thank you both! 

Ugh.  I was hoping for a tasty mushroom. 😆 Thanks!

I found this one where there were many milk caps around, and while I'm nearly certain it's a lobster mushroom, I'd like to be certain, before I try it for 2 reasons: 1. I didn't think I'd ever find one here (northern Illinois), and 2. While it smells very slightly fishy, it's very dry, brittle, and light - like it's dehydrated.  Is that normal?  Also, like real lobster, are there any precautions I should account for, before trying it?  Oh, and I guess I should ask: what's a good way to prepare it?  Thanks!

If I were to guess, the first one is a Destroying Angel aka Amanita Bisporigera.

Found these today.  Seems too early to be Grifola frondosa, and they're lighter colored than I'm used to.  Perhaps Polyporus umbellatus, or something else?

This is amazing! And I'm seriously jealous.  Looks like you got close to 2 pounds.  I'm going to have to go back out to the log in the woods, and pick the rest tomorrow. Thank you! 

Found this, growing with others on a fallen log.  It looked past prime, so i only took a sample, but from descriptions, I feel like this is an oyster.  Thoughts?

Found a bunch of these in similar hard wooded area.  They smell delicious, and the cap has a velvet feel, but what are they?

After you mentioned it, I had to dig up info on Melzer's reagent out of curiosity!  Thank you for the preliminary classification of a. Cokeri.  I'd love to be able to dig deeper into these on my own, but for now, especially since the majority of Amanitas are inedible, I'll just keep looking. ☺️

23 hours ago, Dave W said:

Looks like fairly young boletes, so a spore print may not form

You were right, as usual. No spore print. There were other more mature mushrooms in the vicinity of these, so I may go back for another one. Thank you! ☺️

This one was near oak and walnut. It looked too nice to pick, and since I'm pretty certain it's amanita, it wouldn't have been a good snack anyway, but I'm curious, is this possibly a white fly agaric? Other specimens nearby had a bit more yellow on the cap, but even for this one, if you look closely, it's ever so slightly yellow too.

Thank you!  Definitely looks a lot like T. Rhoadsiae.

Found these near the boletes in the previous post.  They're tiny - largest had an approximately 1” diameter cap.  Odor is nearly non-existent or slightly mushroomy.  

Found these in hardwood forested area. As you can see, they bruised pretty dramatically on the way home, but not sure what it is.  Currently taking a spore print though.  Any thoughts, please?

Unknown unfortunately.  Hopefully I'll be able to further examine it later, and I'll get back to y'all.  Thank you!

I saw it glow!  It was super faint, and unfortunately I don't have a camera that's good enough to capture it, but...  Wow!  Soo cool! 

So cool!  How fresh do they have to be to see them luminesce with the naked eye?

This was found in the same hardwood forest, growing on the forest floor. The color of the pores was absolutely brilliant!  Is it possibly red-mouth bolete?

Found this huge clump surrounding a dead standing hardwood tree today.  From a distance, I thought it was Chicken of the Woods, but I'm guessing it's Omphalotus Olearius?  Way too bright orange, and early in the year to be oyster mushroom, right?  Smell was 'mushroomy'.  😄

I haven't been on here in a while, but... I found this polypore growing on a log.  The top is very slightly fuzzy, and it smelled 'mushroomy', it has very small pores, and was very leathery.  Doesn't look like turkeytail though.  Any thoughts?

Glad this was already posted.  I think I just found the same...?  Here are photos.  It was growing near chipped wood.  The stem was hollow, with maybe a bit of a pithy center, and they didn't have any specific odor.  

I've been looking for them here, long before I knew the weather was right, but today I stumbled across my first M. Esculenta of the year!  I'm elated!  There were two others that hadn't fully developed, so I'll be back.

Hey Dave.  Do you post photos on Instagram too?