Any idea what these small puffballs might be?

[John Smalldridge]

These started out as orange 3mm. to 10mm. and full of a orange jelly like substance. They later turned gray and became solid before the interior became powdery like most puffballs. Growing on old decayed hardwood and found in early March.

[Dave W]

I'm fairly certain these small pinkish-turn-to-gray balls are Lycogala epidendrum, common name "Wolf's Milk Slime." These are an example of a slime mold.

http://www.mycoquebec.org/bas.php?trie=L&l=l&nom=Lycogala%20epidendrum%20/%20Lycogale%20du%20bois&tag=Lycogala%20epidendrum&gro=73

[John Smalldridge]

Looks like a good ID to me. Thanks DaveW! Anything starting to show up your way? I can't seem to find any mushrooms here.

[Dave W]

We've had only a few days when the high temp has got above 50F. And when it does, it doesn't last very long. Nighttime lows back into the teens before anything has even a slight chance to warm up. Snow and ice patches still dot the hilly rural areas.

A week or so of warm sunny weather sometime between now and April 20 could change things for the better around here. But I'm not real hopeful. Looks like the exact same weather pattern we had during early spring last year. Didn't substantially warm up until May. It was the worst year in my experience for black morels, the early-occurring species. Including all my local spots, and some really good patches I visit in Mew Jersey, I got 24 total black morels. Compare this with 2002, when I got 646 black morels. Not only did it stay cold for a long time last year, but after we did experience a brief warmup 4/10-4/13 (highs in the 70s-80), temps immediately nosedived down to near 20F. There were extended periods when the temps didn't get above 30. In my experience, this is the worst-case scenario for morels... get the ground temp up to just about the critical level --about 50F-- and then get a hard freeze just when the morels are ready to pop. Seems to shut them down for the year. But, I'm still hopeful that maybe we'll get lucky and after it finally warms up for a few days, we won't get a similar return to winter this year.

The late-occurring yellows --large morels found primarily under dying apple and recently dead elm trees-- did quite well last year. So I anticipate a similar season this year... not much early on, then some good late-season pickins. I get kinda antsy waiting for things to get started, and early unproductive forays into the morel spots tend to burn me out a bit. My best local spot for blacks requires walking up and down a ridge, no trail. And, before things warm up enough, there's not many mushrooms at all to find. So for me, the big challenge is to remain patient.

[4rum]

Very good account of last season Dave. Same here. I think I found a total of 4 morels all last year. I'm hopeful this year won't be as disastrous but it 's not looking good.