Mushroom Monday

I'm preparing for an upcoming art show this week, so I am not going to take the time to look up all of these fungus friends. It has been quite dry this summer, so it was nice to see them bloom after some recent rains.

 
I know, I  know! I usually look everything up, but I promised some fungus and I wanted to deliver it before too many more days had passed. (This one looked a little like it could be a russula of some sort, maybe.)

This one was just emerging from the duff - white and gilled, with  no noticeable veil.

The colors, textures and shapes were so varied, it was amazing that they were all out the same morning. (Another russula - emetica, perhaps?)

I knew who some of these beauties were from previous introductions, but not all - the one above is a coral of some kind, but without research, I can't claim to know which.

This one didn't make it through breakfast and I'm not sure there was enough left to identify. Somebody thought it was tasty, though, and it made me smile.

These little umbrellas were tiny and very fragile. Pinwheel marasmius, I think...  Or something close.

These, on the other hand, looked like sturdy little shelves. A polypore of some kind.

These looked like well placed stairs for a nimble woodland nymph to climb into her tree's upper branches. Red belted polypore, if I remember correctly. These and the tinder polypore also remind me of little caps hung on the side of a tree by some magical creature coming home.

And the little spiny puff balls looked like they were nested so carefully among the grasses - I almost missed these guys hiding a little way off my path. 

I'll wager BetsyLee can identify these guys (well, except maybe the breakfast leftovers) and I might make a run at it after Saturday's show, if nobody else decides to take up the challenge -- you could almost think of it as another kind of puzzle. (Evil, yes?)

Okay, back to carving, printing and prep work! Wish me luck!!