Here are a few fungi finds from snake road for #mushroommonday
I noticed these huge polypores in a nice reddish black color on snake road.
Quite a few of them were growing along this old forest preserve maintenance road.
Some were in terrible shape and nearly rotting. The black stem gave me an idea on their identification.
It turns out these are bay polypores or Picipes badius. I've seen other polypores in the badius family but never one in this color. Theoretically they are edible if you can find them right when they are growing, otherwise they are too tough to eat. I suspect they also don't taste like much more than wood either even when harvested ripe. Probably not one of the best for harvesting.
They are kind of strange in that they have a large cap and stem which is a bit unusual for polypores that usually grow out of the side of a tree.
Now for some decaying ink caps. These things look terrible but this is how they spread their spores. Flies probably land on them then land other places and spread the slimy material that spreads the spores.
I did see some more nice plump wood ear mushrooms.
This is a bit unusual as the weather was hot and dry. I suspect they are sustaining themselves off of swamp humidity and morning dew.
Just some boring crust fungi, but suddenly I heard a rustling in the leaves...
Looks like another cottonmouth is making its way into the sun to warm up. One thing to realize collecting fungi on snake road is probably too dangerous. Better to go here just to keep an eye out for snakes lol.
That's all for now, thanks for looking :-)