Gillian

Ah, thank you both michele and Dave W! I have previous photos of this mushroom and indeed they look the same!

I found these this morning after a couple of days of rain, at the base of a large willow. SW Ontario. Smooth, dry caps, not crackled in appearance. ~3cm diameter. Brittle. Attached gills, slender stalks, ragged veil remnant around cap but none I could detect on the stalk. Dark brown spore print. Smells like an Agaricus (commercial mushroom smell). From two guide books, and Mycoquebec.org all I can come up with is Agrocybe dura, but there's no "crackling" of the cap. Any other thoughts? Thanks!

Thanks! Yes, they were on the forest floor, almost in a straight line for ~30 feet. It makes me wonder whether there is an old treefall buried there.

No, there is mulch over compost (dark soil) and my compost container which is black. I thought they appeared close to these on the Myco-Quebec website: https://www.mycoquebec.org/bas.php?post=Nolanea&l=r&nom=Entoloma vernum / Entolome printanier&tag=Entoloma vernum&gro=19 I wish I could have obtained a spore print...that would have helped with the Genus at least. Maybe if they come up again I'll be able to get one.

Dave, I initially got it from my "Mushrooms of Ontario and Eastern Canada" field guide, then online from several sources: https://www.first-nature.com/fungi/entoloma-clypeatum.php http://www.mushrooms.su/en/entoloma_clypeatum.htm (this site also lists several other names for it as well, both Latin and Russian) http://www.mycobank.org/MB/193495 https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/344650-Entoloma-clypeatum/browse_photos I didn't find a reference to it on https://www.mushroomexpert.com/entoloma.html but I thought perhaps it has been reclassified. The date on my Field Guide is 1999.

These came up in the mulch next to my composter after a rain last week. Small, fragile, and knobby. Hollow stems right up to the cap. Gone 24 hrs later. I tried to get a spore print to no avail...the cap dried up even under cover.

Yes, the pink does seem to be growing out of the old, tough part of the fungus. I'm going to try and get serial photos and see what happens. I'll cut a piece off once it matures more.

Thank you Dave. You have such a wealth of knowledge!

I happened upon this old hardwood stump this evening after the rain stopped. There are the remnants of old bracket fungus and 3 new areas of cotton candy pink, firm growth starting. Very firm, not fleshy, and seems to be a uniform pink colour on both sides. Water repellant. Any ideas? Fistulina hepatica seems to be darker red on top and whitish underneath. I'll keep my eye on how it progresses.

More data...spore print is pinkish brown, virtually the same colour as Pluteus cervinus ( side by side in the photo), maybe a bit darker. Under the microscope the spores are a bit angular and larger compared to P. Cervinus (both shown for comparison at 400x, Pluteus first, Entoloma second ). Any other genera this could be?

LOL, no I didn't Dave. I went back today and of course they are all gone...not a sign (to me) that they were ever there. Fruiting bodies are so ethereal...part of the fun!

Many of these growing in lines on the forest floor today. Dry, radially cracked caps ( don't seem to have knobs), satin sheen on caps and stems (almost like a crust of bread), attached gills, gills not closely spaced and not all continuous. No smell that I can distinguish. Getting a spore print now...looks like it will be pinkish but it's slow. I have it beside a Pluteus cervinus and the latter is a totally different texture and easily dropping its spores.

I came across these this morning, surrounding an old stump. Their sheer numbers just made me smile. I think they must be Coprinellus disseminatus ( fairy ink cap).

Ah, yes, that does look like them! Thanks once again Dave!

I took these pictures yesterday and today...4-5mm scaly orange "cap" mushrooms growing in my garden mulch, and didn't even look at the photos until today. What I didn't realize yesterday (old 58 y.o. eyes) was that these also had cups with "eggs" in them! From MushroomExpert I have gleaned that they are likely a species of Cyathus...any ideas which one? I haven't tried a spore print or looking at them under the microscope...they are so tiny! The first picture is from yesterday...orange scaly caps at the top are still quite robust. The second picture is from this morning, the caps are starting to degrade and expose the "eggs". I'm also wondering if the smaller, bright orange stalked are even the same species? Isn't nature amazing???