Hola, setero! Have got some splendid fungi impressions from today's extensive and long photo-walk to the local forest.
Just two days ago I walked around the St. Petersburg markets and explored the second-hand bookstores and coffee-shops with 
This week the weather was sunny and hot, so we decided to check the forest for mushrooms, and today I was trampling green moss and knocking down fly agarics... just kidding! 😁 there are still no fly agarics in the forest (yet). I stumbled upon a decent fungi biodivercity, but in terms of foraging what we harvested were mostly britlegills.
My wife and babygirl took little baskets, I took camera and we headed to the local forest. It is a bit different in different directions -- there is a swampy plain territory, the pines with mosses mixed with ivies, and there is a more gloomy and dark area filled mostly with spruces, and that is exactly where I found myself later... not intentionally, just happened so. But the start of explorations began in the moss area.
I cant say the forest was empty and we did not find anything. No, we did find something.... and I made amazing captures. All in all I took 560 pictures (but a lot of them were double, triple etc takes of same mushrooms and spots, made for the focus stake processing).
We picked up a decent amount of britlegills (red and yellow-headed), a few Leccinum, and pretty much that was all.
Young russulas look like all the same... it's only aging, when they mature, "when life has beaten them" - makes them different, unique, and especially beautiful, gives them a personality. I consider now of making a separate post - "old Russula ladies. wonderful aging" :)
Gigantic edition of red britlegill. We didnt pick it up, of course.
We found one small Xerócomus subtomentósus. It looks like mushrooms in the forest are just starting to grow, and we caught this moment!
Another very tiny britlegill baby.
This mushroom with no distinctive features I identified as Amanita virosa (in Russian: Мухомор белый вонючий) - it is a highly toxic and unedible mushroom (it contains same toxins and in same amounts as 'Death angel' - Amanita phalloides).
After apparently 40 min walk we parted, my wife and babygirl headed home hugging those little buckets, and - a funny thing - the baby started peeling mushrooms on the go, while walking through the forest! and upon returning home, she washed, sorted and cleaned everything that we had picked up. mother's little helper is growing, I can't help but brag a little, my heart is simply melting :=)
... but my photo trofeys on that day were more sufficient. I continued making circles and exploring the mosses, and finally found myself in a different part of the forest, as I mentioned above, with a different biodivercity, where some very enjoyable encounters happened.
Had no extra packet with me, so a few pick-ups finally ended in my hat ;)
Occasionally I found this baby red-head boletus! One of my fave mushrooms actually... and the first I found this season.
Puffballs - I encountered them only twice during this walk, each time they were tiny, just started growing.
This tinder fungus I identified as Picipes badius -- it has characteristic cap's curved edges that look like leathery blades.
I also was waiting a lot for the short pauses of sunlight coming out from the clouds.
It has a lot of thick broken rotting trunks, which are mossy and quite picturesque by themselves. Each one is a real macro universe itself... One particular trunk had two different species -- and provided me a beautiful photosession. I really spent about one hour there, taking pics exactly of this find.
The first specie is a slime mold that I cant identify myself. It was tiny, also very young and so beautiful! Judge for yourself.
Blurry shot below is given with a purpose to show the scale. This mold was really tiny!! less than 1/10 of a dime.
Probably I witnessed an early stage of its life-cycle. When the little circles grow and merge into a matured single colony -
...they became look less fancy, not like the little initial "fluffy balls" at the start... probably. You decide. And of course, you need a solid magnification to appreciate all their tiny structures. The colony on another trunk is more developed, you can see all the initial starting points have merged.
The next fungus sitting on the same trunk in a little neighborhood, was small too - but not tiny, and you dont need a magnify glass to notice its beauty. And it was wanted for a long while, I appreciated its beauty in the pictures and really dreamed of finding it myself. (Yes, I have a sufficient fungi encounters wishlist, haha!)
TADAAAAM! (with Freddy Mercury's intonations) "It finally happened!"
Artómyces pyxidátus, or Клавикоро́на коро́бчатая in Russian, or coral-tipped mushroom. A lot of this fungi, a big colony attacking and trying to digest the corpse of the wooden giant. I took.... wait a minute: 164 pictures in the folder (of 560) belong to exactly this specie. This might be an indicator how excited I was... This isnt a super-rare specie, but still: it is the 1st time I discovered it myself!
Probably I have to round up my post here -- cause, obviously, this beauty deserves a separate blog to enjoy. Right now I am too excited, emotions should settle down a bit, meanwhile I will do selection and retouching of the captures taken, and possibly some macro focus stakes as well.
So, traditional thank you for your visit, hope you enjoyed walking and watching the macro beauties of the nature with me.
| location: | Vyritza, Russia | August 2022 | natural light |
| camera/lens: | Canon 5D | Sigma 150mm | raw-conv |
All images taken by me, copyright (c) 
My posts at pinmapple.com
Notice to the public: there is a fun challenge #fungifun : share with us your stories and trophies, photos and recipes, contemplations and ideas. not sure about correct ID (which allows us to find out more about certain fungus), no problem, no fear - mushrooms are full of weird charm, even staying nameless. we appreciate them any way, not only for their cooking values.. join the