Fungi Friday - AN HOUR WITH MUSHROOMS IN THE WOODS

Some weeks ago, on the 13th of November 2021, I drove to the woods near the town called Svetvinchenat and spent an hour with the local mushrooms.

This place is situated in the inland area about forty kilometers from where I live.

(Enlargeable)

The vegetation is considerably different, the wooded areas are larger, so I often find mushrooms that are rare or non-existent in the nature around my hometown near the sea. These are the Armillaria mellea mushrooms.

Here you can take a look at the top of the cap.

Here you can take a better look at the small mushroom contorted under the fully developed ones.

Armillaria mellea is commonly known as the Honey fungus. It's edible and quite common in these deciduous woods. They grow on the stumps and roots of the trees, in this case, the oaks. Often the surface on which they grow is covered with leaf litter, so it looks like they appeared from the soil. The Armillaria mellea fruiting bodies often appear in large clusters, but on this occasion, I found only a trio of them at the edge of the forest.

Mycena pura is a lovely blue or blueish mushroom that I have never encountered in the area where I live.

Even here, forty kilometers north, I don't see them every year. The color can vary considerably, from blue to pink.

(Enlargeable)

While photographing one of these mushrooms, I noticed a springtail on its stalk. I decided to get closer. But when I mounted the macro lens and prepared the camera settings ...

... the minuscule creature retreated into the shade under the cap ...

... so I was able to get only these, not very good shots, where only the tip of the antenna is well lit. But I had some time and patience at my disposal ...

(Enlargeable)

... so, after a bit of waiting, the springtail reappeared in all its glory.

(Enlargeable)

I can't tell you the exact species, or a family, but this is definitely a springtail from the order Entomobryomorpha. Although they look a lot like minuscule insects, the springtails are different, more primitive insect-like arthropods.

The color isn't the only Mycena pura characteristic that can vary, the shape can also be slightly different from mushroom to mushroom.

Besides being considerably smaller ...

This one is pretty pale in comparison to the one with the springtail on it ...

... and the stalk isn't so thick.

After a bit of walking and sniffing around, I came across the Galerina vittiformis mushrooms.

These very small mushrooms grow in shady, moist places, often surrounded by moss. These little caps are partially closed, while the one in the following photograph ...

... is completely spread.

Here you can take a look from above.

These elegant mushrooms look a lot like Galerina vittiformis, but their stalks are considerably taller, so I'm not sure about the species. The light in that humid, shady corner was pretty low so at first, I photographed the mushrooms with the flash on.

But this elegant pair with the oak leaf above them looked so good in natural light. I just had to show them at their best. So, it was time to set the camera on the ground and take a long exposure shot.

Here you can see a pretty generic-looking, pale brown mushroom that I wasn't able to identify.

(Enlargeable)

I can't tell you the name of the species here.

(Enlargeable)

Here again, I'm not sure about the species. Maybe Clitocybe nebularis? Very, very maybe.

I found these two mushrooms on the edge of the forest, not far from my car parked by the road that leads to some small village.

(Enlargeable)

Before driving away, I photographed also these other two temporarily unidentified mushrooms.

And that's it. As always in these posts on HIVE, the photographs are my work - THE END.