Irina

Found this creature for the first time on what looked to be part of a spruce log. I never find winter jellies!

Thank you, Dave! That explains the lack of slug enthusiasm for this one.

Found on the lower part of the property toward a mixed cedar/spruce area, getting toward the swampy part. Standing alone -- sturdy, especially the thick cap, and it has some kind of aroma, but hard for me to describe.

Does anyone have some personal experience or a cultural connection to the edibility of this mushroom? I see a lot of cut and paste "inedible" in NA and some "edible" in the UK, which makes me think -- possibly edible but not particularly tasty, or perhaps just not really well known. I never find many of these, but I find them almost every year.

Looks like a perfect match, thank you @michele!

Could it be Phaeolus schweinitzii also? That's a pretty common mushroom here and it looks a bit like that, and turns black after its season.

So colorful! Love the speckled cap and the yellow gillls and the sorbet stems! This was growing direct from ground in pine duff on a dry slope, mixed conifer forest. No smell that I can tell. Pretty heavy in the hand for its size, kind of rubbery and strong, doesn't want to break or flake.

I think this could be a couple of varieties, would love someone's opinion. Also, have you eaten them? Found 5 growing in a cluster out of moss on a granite boulder. All had the wavy, thin stem ... all petite, velvety dark-brown caps, bright yellow pores. Blues fairly slowly. I tried for a 'lemony' taste but didn't detect one. Some possibles might be Aureoboletus citriniporus or Boletellus chrysenteroides. Edibility is hard to find on citriniporus.

Wow! Thank you! How cool. The stem really is brown-velvet in color and texture, I didn't notice. A very pleasant looking chunky mushroom that should be ID'able from now on. This part of the wiki description is perfect: "a mushroom that appears even in dry conditions when most others are absent"!

There were many mosquitoes so I didn't give this mushroom a good look in situ! Sorry for the bare description, but maybe somebody knows it ... a chunky mushroom with lactarius-ish gills (no latex), growing out of a heavily rotted stump, that could have been spruce. I'll see if I can pick up something else about it.

Thank you so much, Dave! It's wonderful to learn what it is.

These don't have a strong smell, I'd say the large gills are notched, and they peel very easily from the cap, they also have a flimsy "fish gill" type of texture. The stem is extremely fibrous, "string cheese" texture -- if your string cheese happens to be very very tough. Although I think these are all the same species, we actually found the first ones growing on a severely rotted white birch log, and the second on a heavily rotted red maple snag. Pretty gregarious growing. Thanks for any ideas!

Thank you so much! Great information. It's so distinct in smell, texture, I'll definitely know it now if I ever see one again.

I've never in-person seen either morels, or the lookalike with rocket fuel compounds. But we found this on the path today where someone left it, and I wondered if it might be the lookalike. Very crisp texture, pleasant mushroom aroma -- I think the stem is hollow although it was folded closed -- velvety surface along the cap's pleats and folds, which have a nice mahogany color. What do you think?

is there anything vaguely similar to this that could be grown in the northeast?

Thank you, Please What. Honestly I would have tried them, if we hadn't found a second "new to us" mushroom at the same time. Tried them carefully of course ... but it'd be worth learning how to tell these two confidently apart here, because brick caps will never show up much in our woods. I do think they look like capnoides too. It's great to be able to bounce this off more experienced foragers.

Thank you very much for your insights, Dave. Will skip the tufts for now. The yellow knights were delicious ... I like your way of consuming them.

mushrooms are heavily winding down here ... well, we have, by far, mostly conifers so there is little chance of finding the broadleaf goodies people do. In early winter you must stretch your mushroom knowledge or go home with empty pockets. Anyhow, here is a hypholoma appearing on a well-rotted spruce stump. Sulphur or capnoides? Unfortunately, I've passed a few definite sulphurs without tasting them. I read they are "extremely bitter," but sometimes locally things are not as bitter as they are in books. This one seems to have some fruits that are a bit large for a true sulphur. the gills appear more "smoke" than greenish, and the taste is not bitter. I did a search online and found many things ID'd seemingly interchangeably between these two. I think there may be some confusion generally about it. Would love some feedback here! And, this is the first year we have found any yellow knights. So far in person I have only seen very young ones. These might be T. equestre also, but they are so mature I can't feel sure they are the same thing. It does seem like T. equestre is coming up a lot in Maine right now. How do they look to you?

what a cool way to print them ... this makes me feel confident we did find a blewit, even though patches were a bit darker. But they have the same kind of pink I think.

Just for fun. We found one of the last lilac corts of the seaon it seemed, they have mostly gone. Did a spore print on the same kind of paper. So here is the likely blewit print again: And here is the lilac cort:

Wonderful info Dave, thank you so much. I dithered on what kind of paper to use for this. I thought aluminum foil might not show the color very well. Maybe coated white paper would be good when you're expecting a pinkish print.

I never ever heard of that technique until this forum, I can't wait to try it out. There's a thread on here somewhere I have bookmarked to read about it. In this case I will have to find another blewit to try that, maybe in five years ... there is a lot of rust in this print, I can believe it doesn't look like a cort, but it would be more reassuring if the color was further away!

ah wow, thanks for the feedback. Well, with one blewit, maybe his spores will take to the yard. 🤞

We have many of the liilac corts here that, somewhere I read, the Russians refer to as "goat stink." They are just beautiful. But on a path yesterday I found the first thing I thought might actually be a blewit. Only one though, sadly. Just enough to spore print. Its irregular cap and short stubby stem seem blewity, but the spore print is a bit dark unfortunately. I need to print a lilac cort in comparison and see if it's rustier. What do you think it might be? I guess I'm leaning cort right now.

Darn, I bet you're right. We did have a big storm go through, lots of rain. I've been trying to enjoy bringing honeys home while avoiding sporing them at home, but it looks like some spores might have slipped through ...