Went foraging and found a nice little clump of golden chantarelles. It's a bit early in the season, but the bravest ones are already out.

This bad boy has enough amatoxins to painfully and slowly kill you( Slaps cap emphatically). The all white appearance is wonderful on these, all I can think of is a ghost.

I am not sure on the exact species as there are a handful of closely related ones in NW Indiana. I did not take it home to break out a microscope or KOH, so we will have to survive without.

Now I am curious if whatever slug munched on this is toast, if any slug specialists out there want to fill me in I would appreciate it.

Bonus Cinnamon chanterelle, another bright red mushroom that looks out of place.

It is always nice to see the vibrant red. Found in NW Indiana

If you consumed a wild mushroom and suddenly started seeing tiny people around you, you might reasonably assume it contained a familiar psychedelic.

But that does not appear to be the case with Lanmaoa asiatica, known locally as jian shou qing, a mushroom species sold in markets in Yunnan, southwestern China.

When eaten undercooked, the mushroom can produce vivid visions of miniature people – not unlike Gulliver on his travels to Lilliput.

Yunnan hospitals get dozens of these cases each year.

To try and find out the root cause, University of Utah mycologists Colin Domnauer and Bryn Dentinger sequenced the genomes of 53 mushroom samples from across the wider Lanmaoa genus.

Per usual mushrooms do what they want. This species is not supposed to be popping right now until later in the year. The conditions were right though to fire it off though.

This is easily the biggest one(foot for scale is the best I could do in the bramble)I have come across and with all the rain we have been getting, split the poor guy apart.

Bonus eastern box turtle.

Another coral I stumbled across in the woods. The color on these guys is incredible.

Bonus shot of some baby racoons.

Found this guy growing on the root flare of a dead oak in central Texas. Eye-catching lacquered appearance on the topside and stem.

It took me a minute to figure out the ID on account of the long stem, soft underside, solitary presentation, and overall immature growth stage.

I'm trying to practise my identification skills - the photos are of some younger ones so I'm also basing this on some older ones nearby that definitely had Decurrent Gills and a White Spore print.

I think Oudemansiella furfuracea but I know these guys are weird/are actively being studied. From what I read the genus is being fleshed out and sequencing is making things complicated on what species are what. Also they did the old genus switcheroo on me as happens in mycology as I use to call these Xerula. I will go to my grave using Armillaria bulbosa though, can not take that one from me.

These guys are pretty common around here. They are edible but I have never been a huge fan. As far as fun texture, I will give them a 10/10.

Agaricus augustus were everywhere this weekend, time for some good eating.

Cultivated enoki (Flammulina filliformis) look completely different because they're grown with limited light to make them come out thin and pale.

In the wild they have a bright orange sticky cap and a dark velvety stem.

Great Lakes region, USA. April 2026.

I was looking for mushrooms to get macro photos of and stumbled on this false morel. This macro shot is focus stacked. 8 image stack.

I came across a big dryads saddle today. I got Shep in there for scale, I would say it is about .25 sheps in diameter.

The other thing I love about these mushrooms is the trippy underside(I forgot to grab a video). Then I swear they smell like a watermelon rind when you cut into them but my wife argues against, so I could use a decider here. As always hope you all are enjoying the weather and get a chance to be in nature.

I have been finding lots of these guys over the past week.

When I first started hunting for morels I researched how to identify trees based of bark so I could hunt under the elms, tulips, sycamores, etc. what I ended up finding out is mushrooms grow where mushrooms want, rules of thumb be damned.

This patch here was 30 feet away from the closest tree and at that they were pines. Morels cannot be stopped apparently. Happy hunting folks.

Also would love ideas on the granules on the cap. Not snot, not bugs, but I vaguely remember seeing something that it could have been...maybe another fungus? I should have written it down lmao