Help ID two species please. Found these guys today.

[MushroomDan]

Hello guys! We went for a small hike in the woods today, January 21st. Found a ton of our target species Exidia recisa. Also found a couple of different species and need help to ID.

In the first and second photos, the fungi was found on a dead/dying tree stump. They have somewhat sticky caps, black sort of velvety stalk, no particular odor / no odor / smell. Grew in clusters of many. Caps reddish, brownish, yellow. Stalks dark brown/black. Gills yellow/pale yellow.

In the third photo, my wife found these guys growing eye level on branches of a tree. Looks like wood ear mushroom. They are in many ways different looking and different to the touch than the Exidia recisa. The color is very similar though. Need help to ID please.

Spore prints are in progress.

 

[vitog]

The mushrooms in the first two photos look like Flammulina velutipes, which should produce white spore prints.

[MushroomDan]

11 hours ago, vitog said:

The mushrooms in the first two photos look like Flammulina velutipes, which should produce white spore prints.

Thanks man. The spore print is white.

[Dave W]

Agree about the white-spored mushrooms being Flammulina velutipes. 

Dark ear-like fungi may be Exidia recisa. This fungus forms different shapes, and the ear-like form is common. They could also be an Auricularia (Tree Ears), except the color looks to be dark for these types. Auricularia fruit bodies are shiny and rubbery on one side (usually the down-facing side), and not shiny but velvety or suede-like on the other side (usually facing upward). Exidia recisa is more jelly-like that Auricularia. My guess is these are Exidia.

Dan, what do you do with Exidia recisa (target species)? 

[MushroomDan]

Hi Dave. Thanks for reply.

On the backs of the "ear like" species I posted, it's fuzzy, velvety and suede like. It's exactly how you described for Auricularia. They are not sticky/jelly to the touch like Exidia. This is why I kept these guys separate. They look really close to Exidia, even in the photo they look close, but to the touch they are completely different. On that same day we found almost 1/2 lb of Exidia, and they were all jelly like and had no velvety or suede like appearance on the reverse side.

What do we do with Exidia recisa? We eat them. We dry them, then we add them to hot soups or we sautee the dried specimen with pretty much anything. They plump back up a bit and have a chewy texture but dissolve pretty fast while chewing. I also love to grind the dried specimen into a coarse "black pepper" powder and just add that to meals. My theory is, black color in nature and black color as edible is very rare and we need to use that more.

[Dave W]

Interesting. Sounds like using dried Exidia works the same way as does Auricularia. I've never tried eating Exidia. 

Sounds like the "ears" are Auricularia. Spore print for either Exidia or Auricularia is white. Shape of spores is similar for the two types, with Auricularia spores a little longer and about twice as thick as for Exidia. Auricularia mushrooms are usually not as dark colored as the ones seen here. Did you find those in New Jersey, Dan?

[MushroomDan]

Yes found in NJ. Palisade state park along the Hudson River. Its a 40 miles or more strip of land along the Hudson. The dark color is probably because of camera/bad light. These looked lighter when we picked them. From now on I will take a photo of anything we find before picking it.