RE: Weird Plastic Baby: Fungus Edition (Missouri Ozark Mushroom Hunting: 12 Photos & Commentary)
There are so many different kinds of fungus growing underground or inside trees and other plants, just waiting for the right conditions to make them fruit into mushrooms. Some of the fall and winter mushrooms are great! Sulphur shelf, lobsters, lions mane, turkey tails (to chew like gum), wood ears (for soup) and oysters, along with the hedgehogs. Those are all great mushrooms. There are others, too, like the mock matsutakes and honey mushrooms, that take more skill to keep from getting into real life and death consequences.
Some kinds will keep fruiting as long as the rain and temperatures are just right, especially the kinds that are symbiotic with specific plants. You can find them in that spot, year after year, if the weather's right. Others are more transient. But every rain - heck, every day, is another opportunity to see another mushroom! :D
You've got a good season ahead of you until winter really sets in. It all depends on the rainfall. The greater diversity of habitats, though, the greater diversity of mushrooms you will see. You might check out the Missouri Mycological Society and keep track of their events, to see if they ever have any outings in your 250-mile zone.
@haphazard-hstead Thank you so much for your insight and informational resources. I am very excited to put this knowledge to use.
Do you have a particular guidebook you recommend? We have been looking at the Missouri specific book published by MDC and Audubon's guide book. Are there better ones out there that might be under radar?
One that I really like is "All That the Rain Promises and More" by David Aurora. It's for the western US, but it's the best book I know for making mushrooms seem fun, really fun, and not strange or technical. The key to families, inside the front and back cover, are really good, too. I have a YouTube video that shows me using it - here.
When I visited my parents in northern Arkansas last winter, I looked at my dad's mushroom books. His Audubon guide was clearly the most used! He has so many notes and paperclips in it, it's twice as thick as it ought to be.
He has that book by the Missouri Dept of Conservation, "Missouri's Wild Mushrooms", too. It looks like a good book, especially for getting started. I like books that do more than list species and their characteristics. I like it when they talk about foraging and have recipes, too. That shows that the folks writing the book really have been out there, rather than just editing other information into a book.
Then there's "Mushrooms Demystified". It's a great book, but it is for folks that like to look at every detail of every mushroom, with a magnifying lens, and want to talk in technical jargon, lol. I am not kidding about that! It's becoming outdated, though, as molecular chemistry is changing our understanding of what mushrooms are related to each other.
Anyway, that's a long anwer. Short answer: With that MDC book and the Audubon book, you would have a good start. The "All the Rain Promises" is a fun extra that shows mushrooms can be a big part of a fun life outdoors.