urbpan | Mushrooms in the Breakheart Reservation

We went to the Breakheart Reservation in Saugus/Wakefield. We were surprised at the number of colorful mushrooms out there today!

There were lots of these pale yellow Amanitas. Possibly in the phalloides section?

Same mushroom, dug out to show the clublike volva. Don't eat this one, whatever you do.

Coral-like shapes in mushrooms have evolved at least four different times.

Green lichens contrast nicely with the pine needles.

There were also a lot of these lovely purple mushrooms with very slimy tops. The orange-brown stain on the stalk (spores clinging to the remnants of the cobweb-like universal veil) helps identify it as a Cortinarius mushroom.

This strikingly homely creature is puffball-in-aspic, a mushroom I've only ever seen in books before today. There were dozens! Alexis took some better pictures.

Another one we saw lots of (although not always as photogenic as these) was this stump-digesting species of LBM.*

These are the fruiting bodies of the very commonly seen species called turkey tail. The dark brown will fade to bands of faint colors.

* "little brown mushroom"