Last two mushrooms species of the year?

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I found two new-to-me mushroom species at Franklin Park Zoo in the first week of November, including this adorable cluster.



Here's an underside view, that also shows how small they are. I tried to pluck a single mushroom, but when I pulled the stipe it yanked out a whole group of them.

Their yellow color, and the fact that they all grow from a single point gives them the name "sulfur tuft." The fungus that produces these mushrooms Naematoloma fasciculare digests both hardwood and coniferous woods, and here was growing from chipped wood in a landscaping planter.


Arora describes the species as an "attractive, cosmopolitan mushroom." It is poisonous, having caused death overseas, but apparently the North American strain is too bitter to have tempted fate.


The other species I found last week was a sturdy all-white mushroom, growing from pine needle duff in two off-exhibit areas that get very little foot traffic. I expected it would be easy to identify, but it gave me some trouble. I tried to get a spore print from a couple specimens but was unable to. Finally I returned to one group and found that they had discharged white spores on the needles below them.


Here's how they looked yesterday.

I decided this was Leucopaxillus cerealis. This mushroom is noted for being tough and inedible, and for growing from a thick mycelial mat that binds its substrate together. You can see in the first photo all the debris clinging to the mushroom's base. The fungus feeds on the fallen litter that surrounds coniferous trees.