Strange Mushrooms
October 25, 2016
An expert on mushrooms I’m not, but I do have an interest. I have never seen these little guys. Maybe when they grow up they will look familiar. Here on the pine stump the biggest one is about half an inch in diameter. . . . The more I look at this photograph, the more I wonder if they are puffballs. I’ve never seen pinkish-orange puffballs, and I’ve never seen puffballs growing on a tree stump.
Romancing Reality 
Cute little things. It’s the mushroom foraging season over here, but there have been warnings to be very careful about what you pick and what you eat. It seems that the highly poisonous Death Cap is becoming more widespread – one small piece and it lives up to its name. They are very photographic but I’m not going out to hunt for lunch!
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October 25, 2016 at 1:19 PM
White puffballs are among the safest mushrooms to eat, and I have eaten a lot of them. Finding one leads to one of my few indulgences in gobs of butter in which to sauté slabs of them. I wouldn’t try the other colors. And even some white ones have black flesh, an indication that they are not edible. I don’t remember ever having seen one of those. Interesting that the death cap is becoming more widespread. Wonder why.
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October 25, 2016 at 1:44 PM
I’ve never seen pink puffballs either, and ditto not on a tree stump…Many years ago I belonged to a group that was managing a small yacht club on the Hudson, outside NYC. We did weekend dinners at the club for the members. They would call ahead to reserve a space. Very intimate dinners! I found an enormous, gorgeous white puffball on the lawn one day and brought it to the kitchen, where we sliced through it – like slicing through a cloud! But you know that, don’t you! It was part of the dinner, a worthy addition, sauteed in butter, again as you know well. The members were none the wiser (“Yes, that’s mushrooms!”). Don’t want to create a panic!
Let me know if you see them when they get bigger, and if they change shape. I have a feeling the place they’re growing (on wood) is more key than their color.
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October 26, 2016 at 9:35 PM
I should get out my Alexander Smith and see if I can find them. Or maybe there’s a way to key them out online.
OK, I Googled. Not puffballs, but slime mold (Wolf’s Milk Slime, Lycogala epidendrum)! See http://www.bio.brandeis.edu/fieldbio/Fungi_Miller_Stevens_Rumann/Pages/lycogala_epidendrum_page.html, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lycogala_epidendrum, and https://www.flickr.com/photos/topquark22/2893807622.
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October 26, 2016 at 9:39 PM