This October has been better for mushrooms than last year or the year before that. In the Blue Hills you can’t walk three steps without stepping on some. These are from Sunday 10/14 in moist oak/pine woods at the northeast base of Buck Hill.

They were clustered on a rotting branch in the leaf litter. The dimples should help with ID. They emerged from a scaly rust-brown mat:

Here’s another cluster on old wood. They look like mycenas, a large genus of similar-looking miniatures. But I don’t think I’ve seen this color:

This is a coral fungus in the sun. It’s about and inch and half high.

I’m calling these peach blushers for want of a better name. I expect they have one. I’ll try looking it up when I get to it:

These fat boys are boletes, which are mushrooms with pores instead of gills. Some are edible, but I don’t know which. My rule is always know what you’re eating.

Here’s one I did eat, a hen of the woods found 10/7 at the base of an oak snag–it must have been five pounds. I ate some but not all. Most of it is in the freezer.

Tom Palmer
Willett Pond Manager
October, 2018