Fungi, Lichen & Slime Molds 3

This is a very tiny slime mold that was growing on moss at Rod Handfield's (near Millarville) on August 13th. I don't know if it is Physarum rubiginosum or Physarum lateritium - or something else. A lovely splash of colour amongst all the greens of the forest.

Not the most photogenic scene, but I wanted it for my record of what we found on Rod Handfield's property on August 13th.

We came across a cluster of these brown Puffballs growing on a fallen, rotting log in Brown-Lowery Provincial Park on August 20th. Five of us spent a few hours botanizing the forest, recording the plants, fungi, insects and birds that we found. We managed to find various fungi, but (so far?) this has not been a good fungi season. Will be more nervous than ever about going there, as apparently someone had written in the sign-in book that a Cougar had been seen. I know that they and Bears visit the area, but it feels different reading that someone had seen one. I never go very far into the park, partly because it is so easy (for me!) to get lost in there, but also because I have no desire at all to see a Bear and definitely not a Cougar - I've only ever seen a Moose in there. Yikes, I bought a Seagate GoFlex Desk external hard drive the other day and have just set it up. I didn't realize it was the kind of drive that automatically backs up the whole of my computer hard drive. With my other hard drives, I copied and pasted each file or folder to the external drive. Will be interesting to see just how all my files are saved on this new one - I'm really hoping they will be exactly the same as on my computer and not all jumbled up.

I'm pretty sure this is a Saddle Fungus of some kind and it looks like it is covered in mold (?). Macro photo taken on Rod Handfield's property on August 13th. Thanks so much Doug (dougwaylett) for the ID: "This is probably a Gyromitra infula 'Saddle-shaped False Morel' that has been attacked by another fungus (Hypomyces sp.)" Much appreciated!

Fungi are so difficult to identify, so I don't usually give an ID unless someone else helps. My guess would be that this is Flat Topped Coral (Clavariadelphus truncatus). If someone knows for sure, perhaps you would either confirm or correct my guess - many thanks! Photographed (macro) this fungus at Brown-Lowery Provincial Park on August 20th.

Unfortunately, in my photo it looks as if the "stalk" might just be in shadow, but in fact it is black. Came across this photo that I hadn't posted back in the summer of 2009 and wanted to add it to my set of images taken on Rod Handfield's property, south of Calgary, near Millarville. As you can see, this fungus has pores on the underside of the cap, not gills. I'm not sure if this is a Bay-brown Polypore (Polyporus badius).

These colourful Polypores are pretty common in the forest, growing on trees. Photographed this one at Brown-Lowery Provincial Park on August 20th.

Just very small, these delicate fungi seem to collapse just below the cap and I find them looking like this. Really helps when photographing them, as it is easier to get shots of topside and underside of the sparkling cap. Can't remember how big it was - maybe half to three-quarters of an inch across? Photographed at Brown-Lowery Provincial Park on August 25th. Luckily, it was growing in amongst the mosses near the side of the trail, where the sunlight was able to reach. Not a huge number of fungi to be seen, but some of them were rather nice. We really need rain, everywhere is so dry.

This really was a huge fungus, growing near the base of a tree in Brown-Lowery Provincial Park on August 20th. I think I have the ID correct! Note the typical brown staining around the bracket fungus. This really isn't the most photogenic fungus, but I wanted a record of it for my Fungi of Alberta set. Some Artist's Conks are used by artists to do their etching. The underside of a fresh artist's conk is white and turns brown wherever scratched or scored. Once it dries out it becomes very hard and the artwork becomes permanent. Must admit I'd rather know that they were still growing in the forest : ) mushroom-collecting.com/mushroomartist.html