Fungi Friday - 2020 New Mushrooms

Here are some new mushroom finds for 2020 for #fungifriday by @ewkaw and hive-166168 by @querrie

First off my golden oysters bloomed again for around the tenth time.

The whole block is starting to get shriveled by the mushrooms continuing to eat the substrate. I'll try and keep this block going as long as possible...

Now for the new finds. Here is some split gill.

This is what they look like from the top.

And what they look like from the bottom.

Split gill tends to be a tiny mushroom, each little fruiting body is around the size of a fingertip.

Schizophyllum commune is the latin name for split gill. The name has something to do with the large groups they grow in and that they have qualities of both gilled and polypore mushrooms.

Split gill is edible, though it is a bit tough in texture. You can store it easily since it dries out. Some people even make flour out of it. You can also resoak it in water to soften it up for cooking. I took a nibble of it raw and it has a taste similar to blue cheese, once cooked this taste is diminished to a more mushroomy taste. Studies have also shown this mushroom as having anticancer and antitumor properties, so its a good little mushroom to eat.

Out on my mushroom hunt I also found some amber jelly roll. I like to make soup out of this if I can find enough.

I also found some exidia glandulosa aka black jelly roll. This is basically the same taste and texture of amber jelly roll it just has a slightly more bulbous shape and darker color.

Here's the path I took to go mushroom hunting.

The side paths along the bike path are better for mushroom hunting. It was nice and rainy and around 50 degrees which is perfect hunting conditions. Once the ground temperatures get to around 50 degrees morels start to grow. Unfortunately I didn't find any this time around...

The polypores were out like this turkeytail. This is a good medicinal mushroom that can be boiled or tinctured for vitamin d and some chemical compounds that fight cancer.

Here are some false turkeytail mushrooms. They look similar but the pores underneath are smooth unlike turkeytail.

False turkeytail is also alot thinner and they tend to curl up on the edges.

Meanwhile true turkeytail is thicker and tends not to curl.

Here's an artist conch polypore. This is a young one that is still fairly soft. This will eventually grow into a large shelf shaped mushroom.

Here's a strange black crusty thing on a branch. I thought it might be a fungi but I suspect the spittle bugs actually cause this with their egg casings...

Spring us starting to begin around here with some new buds popping out.

The rain is covering the rose hips from last year. Hopefully within the next few weeks the morels will start sprouting for some good meals... happy #fungifriday