Found this guy on a walk. I'm in the Pacific northwest region. Looked to beautiful to not take a pic. If you can educate me and tell me what it is that would be great!

Hi everyone!

I'm a Medical Laboratory Technician student and we have an upcoming Microbiology segment where it's about fungi, and my instructor had suggested we bring in food that has mold on it (i.e cheese, oranges) in order for her to attempt to culture plate it so we can look at it under scopes when the time comes, IF anything grows.

However, I know there's some pretty wild and unsafe things out there.

Is there a way I can SAFELY make an interesting food grow mold, that won't become a biohazardous substance and kill my class? If so, what's the safest way to do it, just dedicate an old tupperware that I can afford to lose?

It also helps if the mold could be from something that's relatively cheap since... college student.

Thank you!

Got excited to find chicken of the woods today and they are very tender, but I am learning that there can be a higher risk of gastrointestinal problems if found on a Eucalyptus tree. Has anyone tried it from a eucalyptus? Did you have any issues?

We found a lot of matsutakes ... so much that my backpack was giving off cinnamon scent on the trail. What are peoples favorite ways to cook these?

Does anyone know the timeline for growth or point me in the direction of where to learn more?

For example if a see a hen and is small, is there a timeline when it gets large? Does it just pop and that’s the size it gets or is there some growth to it ?

I ask because I have seen a few small ones and trying to gauge when I can go back to harvest.

Thank you!!!

Found in NY on a dead tree.

If I had say a 5 sqft container 10" deep filled with sterile sandy loam topsoil, more grit sand, perlite and ericaceous compost for a soil pH of 5.5 and sowed it with grass seed (up to 10-12 different species of grass) and innoculated the soil with mycorrhizal fungi ready for symbiosis of the roots once germination begins.

The container is tended to for a few months with the addition of a small amount of organic fertiliser such as manure. There is also some Clover growing in the container for nitrogen fixing.

As the growing season continues, if one day I then transplant a temperate saprotrophic fungus mycellium cultivated artificially on suitable sterile substrate prior to transplanting, what would the chances be of the saprotroph successfully colonizing the soil and feeding off the the dying grass roots?

Would it get to the fruiting stage once the weather conditions are right?

Would it be able find an saprotrophic equilibrium with the mycorrhizal fungi as I understand the root fungi increase a plants resistance to other fungi being able to make the plant a host to them, would this be also true of a saprotroph trying to make host of the dying root tissue?

If say the species of grass planted were chosen due to a preference of the particular saprotroph wanting to be cultivated would this still cause a problem with the mycorrhizal fungus causing suppression of the growth of the new fungus into the root tissue?

I know that this obviously is exactly what has happened for millions of years in the wild but soil and plant biodiversity has a heterogeneous nature to it even on a small scale (but still larger than a container) and therefore logically must be easier for these various niches one would expect of different species of mycellium without fully out competing the resources available. Am I overthinking this on this matter?

Thanks

It was a very rainy day today at the Ren Faire and I just randomly saw this on a tree while walking around. I was super hype to see it there

https://preview.redd.it/w7m0f6e9xtrd1.jpg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=b232639563d5a438a15213f47d886e591e0d43ab

https://preview.redd.it/68sfo99axtrd1.jpg?width=4032&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=0325f087e5072ca0681cef1704197556007f64f9

https://preview.redd.it/bkp2m7oaxtrd1.jpg?width=4032&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=8bdae675eb266657e6a2d772e238181e27ed5c26

This was found in Missouri, on a fallen log not terribly long after a good rain. I'm pretty confident I know what it is, but just in case I wanted to ask to be thorough. Pretty new to foraging, thanks!

I harvested some reishi growing from the ground in my yard. It has grass growing in/through it, and I picked out as much as I could, but it's not 100%. Hoping to get a spore print. Will I be able to process it further for tincture or does the plant matter make it unusable for that?