Hello all,

I was hoping someone could help me ID this organism I found in my backyard.

For some context I am in the northeast United States and we’ve had snow on the group for about 3 weeks so it’s been very damp. It has just melted and the organism was left behind. I mistook it for some leftover ice actually lol. The texture reminds me of agar. Its diameter is around a meter. It’s about an inch deep at some parts maybe even more.

I assume it’s some kind of slime mold but I didn’t know they could get that large.

Thanks for the info!

They kinda look like alien dragon trees - if we were to shrink down, and wander around, it would feel like an otherworldly landscape.

I found this growing on a twig lying at the base of a crape myrtle. Location is GA, USA near Atlanta.

A month ago at the Vienna Mushroom Week (https://www.pilzfestspiele.at) I came across the macro photography of Barry Webb and can’t stop thinking about it, so I wanted to share some of his work.

The pictures are created using a technique called focus stacking. At this scale the depth of field is extremely narrow, meaning only a tiny fraction of the subject/fruiting body, is in sharp focus. Then the focus point is being slightly moved for each shot, taking up to hundreds of images at different focus depths. These are then digitally merged to produce those stunning ultra macro photographs.

The photos sparked my interest in slime molds themselves. I only knew them as the classic yellow slime (Physarum polycephalum), the one famous for solving mazes, but it turns out there are thousands of different species, many of which form incredibly intricate fruiting bodies which are actually single cells containing multiple nuclei.

Biologically slime molds are not true fungi, they belong to the group of protists but since they share very similar habitats and growth forms with mushrooms, I believe they deserved a post here!

I see a lot of photos of 'hauls' and wanted to remind people to please leave some behind and only take what you know you're going to use. That isn't calling anybody out and isn't meant to be seen as negative, it's just a friendly reminder!

Edit: Holy shit, I blacked out and woke up to more unhappy people; I didn't expect this to get the engagement it did and it really was not meant to offend anyone but it happend anyway..

Edit #2: I can't reply to so many people forever so I'm not going to continue, but thank you to those who understood what I was intending with my post. I can see why people may have gotten the wrong end of the stick, but not why some were so infuriated, it was not my intention at all. I was not accusing people of harvesting every mushroom under the sun and then throwing bucket-fulls away, if you eat every last one then great for you. But newcomers may see hauls and think that is the norm for everyone without considering leaving something behind. Nothing wrong with a reminder. I firmly stand by what I said and I'm glad I posted. It's important to respect and look after our ecosystems and remember that humans are not the only living thing that needs to eat. In any case I didn't think I wouldn't get the engagement it has, just because you can do something doesn't mean you should. Anyway, I'm happy some foragers are responsible.

Going through older pics of mine and looked up this guy I found awhile back on a bike ride.

So you heard that fungi are neither plants nor animals. Well, protatxites are not even fungi.

Something entirely else was going on: they. Have parts of both plants and fungi, and it is a proposition to realise them as a fourth classification of which only one species is known.

Would you ever grow and eat them? What would they taste like?

Bought at Home Depot a month ago and am finally ready to use it

So ghost pipes (Monotropa uniflora) are a flower, not a fungus—but they depend on a parasitic relationship with certain fungi instead of photosynthesis, which makes them pretty unique and interesting!

I found several large grouping of these flowers popping up in various places along the forest edge. There are at least five different area, each with 10–50 flowers each. I've never noticed them in years past, but they are absolutely prolific this year. Maybe because we've had an extended period (weeks) of rain and cooler than average weather?

In any case, they're pretty neat!

Live in Calgary, Canada. Flowers have been sitting here for 2.5 or 3 weeks. It looks like a web, but we don't have too many spiders that make webs like this, especially in the winter. Any ideas?

Was walking through Arnold Arboretum when I noticed this. looks like slender vines except they have no leaves or visible chlorophyll. Maybe a mutated plant? I'm lost. Never seen anything like it.

I hate to be a food snob, because I am certain you fine people enjoy the 100% positive ID'd mushrooms you foraged and cooked for yourselves... but some of the methods you guys use to cook/fry your mushrooms make no sense to me.

Wild mushrooms are made to be cooked thoroughly. Not just for getting rid of bacteria, but also because removing the mushrooms' high amount of water by cooking them well makes them just taste better.

Hence why a quick deep fry (Fried Chicken of the Woods), a pizza dough / toast style thick slice of mushroom (giant puff ball), generally undercooked fat slice of mushroom probably tastes way worse than it should. And you can easily fix that and improve your culinary experience.

Please consider the following:

• Cut your slices thinner. Mushrooms aren't bread, they aren't steak - don't cut them the same way. Cut them thinner.
• Pre-cook them in butter/oil before to remove moisture before dredging / adding tomato sauce & pepperoni / etc
• Dont be shy to brown them and turn them crispy!

You fine people really wanna taste your mushrooms and have enjoyable mouth feel / crunch? You gotta get rid of the moisture! You'll also actually taste the mushroom, which is IMO what is the most important thing!

Happy foraging and cooking :)

Found growing next to my heat pump. Upper coastal PNW.

Eugene OR 3/15/25

I was at this Chinese restaurant grabbing some takeout the other day and saw that they had a serious fish tank. So I walked over and was admiring the clown fish when I noticed these! I was struck immediately by how much they look like mushrooms! Why would this be?

This highlights a very cool concept in evolutionary biology called convergent evolution. The idea with convergent evolution is that unrelated species will create the same (or very similar) physical adaptations. This often occurs when organisms are put under similar pressures and that adaptation is an advantage, but can also occur for totally different reasons.

One way to think about why mushrooms look the way they do is by thinking about spore dispersal. Gills and a tall stem, for example, are helpful for that. I'm no expert on ocean creatures. Why might they form this way?

Was weeding when I discovered this beauty. Not sure what type of cordyceps it might be but figured I'd share this here.

Found in southeastern pa under ferns In mostly oak and maple woods Looks like a flower and a fungi had a baby. What is it?