I invite you to view and, perhaps, enjoy a gallery of some of the mushrooms I saw today at Sweet Arrow Reserve in Sugarcreek Township, Ohio. It was a hot day, muggy and oppressive, but tolerable in the shade. A beautiful spot for a hike, provided you avoid the meadows on a day such as this. There’s a giant hollow tree (not pictured; this post is about mushrooms only) you can stand inside with a partner. The local woodpeckers come in two distinct sizes. And, of course, there were mushrooms aplenty.

Disclaimer: I do not know what varieties most of these fall into, and I did not eat any of them. Not even the really tasty looking ones I found near a bunch of snake eggshells. I’ve labeled some of them, but even those identifications could be incorrect. Feel free to bring me any mushroom knowledge you have. I seek it. I crave it.

White Jelly Fungus

I believe this is tremella fuciformis, a parasitic yeast also know as white jelly fungus, silver ear, snow fungus, and a number of other names. It’s popular in Chinese cuisine, and I believe I’ve had it in a dish at some point. I did not care for its texture, but that’s a me problem.

Are These Even Mushrooms?

I’m pretty sure these are mushrooms, but I don’t know what kind. They remind me a little bit of reindeer moss, which is actually a type of lichen, but I don’t know what these sunset-shaded coralesque specimens are.

Tasty-Looking Mystery

I have not yet identified this delicious-looking cluster of smooth-capped shrooms. I spotted these near an old fallen tree, surrounded by the spent shells of some forest reptile.

These Were Grosser In Person

These black mushrooms growing out of a fallen tree’s sandy rootbal might be dalnidia concentrica? Also known as King Alfred’s Cake (happy birthday to him, I guess), cramp balls, and coal fungus. These looked way nastier in person. Okay, I looked up the King Alfred thing, and apparently he burnt a cake once, and we’re still roasting him about it with this mushroom’s name.

Blurry Brown Moss Friends

These must have been moving real fast. Why else would they be that blurry? I certainly didn’t take a bad picture. Whatever these are, they’re growing near some excellent moss.

Classic Brackets

Just your classic bracket fungus sharing a log with some flaky lichen.

Trees Can't Use Lotion

As my wife remarked, this tree looks like it has that stoneskin disease from Game of Thrones. Under the bark, the worms have carved runes.

Lone and Leafy

I don’t know what this lone, leaf-like shroom is, but it’s great at camoflauge.

A Parenthetical

A ring of brackets, nearly forming parentheses around this log.

Brackets Spreading Out

These fungi have made a neat, splattery smear across the cut of this log. They have a nice pinkish red tint.

Oak Mazegill, Maybe

Possibly daedalea quercina, or oak mazegill. If so, it’s been used as a natural comb to brush down horses, apparently. I like how closely it matches the color of the tree’s interior.

More Shrooms and Lichen

More of what might be oak mazegill, sharing a tree with some green lichen.

Delicate Popypore

Just a few delicate-looking polypore conks.

Shell-like Polypore

Some bracket mushrooms that remind me of clamshells, although the clamshell mushroom is something else entirely.