I just made a tiny late night snack of the morel I found. I microwaved it on 8 for 111. It was scrumptious. I've never microwaved a model before. I have always fried them. It was so good I licked the bowl. I hope to have better luck and better weather tomorrow.



Keith

That is a burl. Chaga is all black and crumbly and encrusted in melanin, with marbled orange cork-like stuff inside. Some people chop off the black stuff before infusing it and some think it has more healing powers than what's inside.

It's almost impossible to identify bracket fungi without seeing the underside. Out of context I'd say that it's a dried-out Crepiotus, possibly Crepidotus crocophyllus. Inedible, and not a big loss because the flesh is thin-fleshed and smells like rotten wood. It's always good to know the specific substrate when identifying fungi. Taking a picture of the surroundings provides valuable hints for the id, too. It also makes sense to get down to the same level as your models, otherwise most of your toadstool pictures will look like circles

a couple of pictures from this week/today:


A few pitiful-looking thimble morels, it's still too early for them. They are usually synched with fiddleheads and there are no fiddleheads yet.


Pycnoporus cinnabarinus on where beaver massacred an aspen stand a few years ago. These fruitbodies are from last year but they retain the color for a long time. Where I live it grows almost exclusively near streams. The first picture shows the underside, and the third shows the flesh cross-section. It yields a very nice vivid yellow colorfast pigment that sticks well to mordanted yarn.





Mycena strobilicola, a snowbank fungus that grows on cones and smells like bleach.

Last year's puffbals, Lycoperdon perlatum


Pseudoplectania, rare here.


A nice (mummified) turkey tail specimen.


These grow anywhere spruce grows it seems. Rutstroemia bulgarioides.

If you find morels in one spot and pick them, will they be there the next year?

OP, as far as your last picture of the woodland flowers.
I asked a Ecologist that specializes in plants I know, the guy is a walking encyclopedia of knowledge. He has walked thru my property and knows every plant in the place including grasses and sedges.

This is his reply, " I'm pretty sure it's Oxalis stricta (yellow wood sorrel) with atypical leaf coloration. I've seen it leaves completely red/purple before."

Thanks everyone.

Here's some more pictures from today.






I believe these are old turkey tail mushrooms.






Is this golden seal?


I believe this is wild geranium.


This looks somewhat like showy orchis, without the flower. Does anyone recognize it?


I found this oak gall today too, laying on the forest floor. It really does look like some sort of odd fruit. It's super light.


I found a bunch is small morels, most to far gone and some white ramps too. I've never found any of the red ramps on my end of the state.

Keith

Always a good idea to take pictures of the underside (gills, pores, ...), and side views, otherwise most mushrooms in pictures will look like circles

The first two groups of white circles have semitranslucent caps with gills showing through so they're probably a large early wood-inhabiting species of Mycena (M. arcangeliana or something similar).

The solitary circles are probably Agrocybe praecox, a common early species growing on litter.

The last group of white circles are either also A. praecox or slightly dried-up Psathyrella spadiceogrisea, also a late spring/early summer species (complex of species).