This little Ink Cap occurs in great numbers on dead tree stumps, decomposing and recycling the rotten wood. The caps start off very small, and then develop to slightly bigger than a thimble. When young they are a beige color, but as they age this turns to grey, then black.

This a cup fungi, that is, they are shaped in the form of a cup. They can be large and fleshy, brown to orange. They are usually bowl-shaped when young but will become flattened and distorted with age. They grow on the ground, in fields, lawns or on roadsides.

Considered edible.

Fruit bodies are 2-6 cm long by 1-3 cm high, slimy, soft, gelatinous, orange to orange-yellow, spatula-shaped at first but becoming lobed or multi-lobed and convoluted. Common and widespread, it fruits on dead conifer logs and stumps.

Considered edible.

Poisonous!

This is a wax cap. In its early stages of development it is distinctively green and slimy. But it quickly begins to change colors, turning yellow or orange, and then fading to a sort of dingy straw color. By the end of this transformation, the parrot mushroom has become a nondescript little thing, dirty yellowish and very difficult to identify.

Considered edible, but apparently not appetizing because of its slimy appearance.

Identification of the many species of this mushroom is apparently very difficult.

A delicate species that last less then a day. Found singly or in small groups after rain. This attractive Ink Cap fruits in grass beside roads or pathways, sometimes in lawns or on well-rotted wood.

A small mushroom, with thin white stem. Many species which are difficult to identify.

Boletus has also many species which are difficult to identify. Most are edible, but some are poisonous.

The group of fungi commonly termed the "boletes" produce mushroom-like fruit bodies (basidiocarps), but instead of having gills they have narrow pores on the underside of the cap. The pores are lined with basidia, and at maturity the basidiospores are "popped" a short distance into the pore, and then fall vertically so that they escape from the pores and are dispersed by wind. Almost all of these fungi grow in symbiotic association with trees, forming mycorrhizas that aid the uptake of mineral nutrients from soil.

Splash Cups are a common inhabitant of bark or wood mulch. Although less than a centimeter in diameter, Cyathus striatus often grows in huge clusters, thus making them easily visible, even from some distance. The common name "bird's nest fungus" should be obvious to anyone looking at the small mass of "eggs" within the small "nests" or cups of the fruiting bodies. The "eggs" in the nest contain the basidiospores within them. These "eggs" are actually analogous to tiny puffballs  in that they contain the basidiospores inside of them.

The Stinky Squid begins life as an "egg." As this egg absorbs water and expands, the tentacle like fruit body appears. Each tentacle is coated with an olive-green spore mass (gleba) whose odor is quite rank. Rank, that is, to human nostrils. To flies, the odor is irresistible; as the main vectors of spore dispersal, they're attracted to Stinky Squids like flies to, well, feces. Then off flies the fly, unknowingly spreading P. fusiformis spores wherever it lands.

A tropical species, the Stinky Squid was first reported in North America in Pittsburgh in 1915. A few decades later, it appeared in New England

Also called Sulfur Shelf, it grows throughout most of the world. Individual "shelves" range from 2-10 inches across. These shelves are made up of many tiny tubular filaments (hyphae). The mushroom grows in large brackets  - some have been found that weigh over 100 pounds (45 kg). It is most commonly found on wounds of trees.

Edible

Grows on on the dead wood of hardwoods and, occasionally, conifers.

Inedible