Fall mushrooms, Discovery Park

It's mushroom time in Discovery Park. Here are a few sightings. Fred Rhoades kindly helped me with the IDs. Check his site out. He's currently testing the possibilities of 3D photography.



This is candlewick fungus, or Xylaria hypoxylon, a name I will keep in mind if I ever do a nature alphabet book.




A lovely coral mushroom, probably genus Clavulina.




Stropharia ambigua.




This is might be Chlorophyllum olivieri or Chlorophyllum rhacodes. Either way, there's a lot of them in Discovery Park.





Possibly Leratiomyces ceres.


Some kind of Psathyrella, possibly Psathyrella gracilis.

Change of season

From Issaquah, some signs of fall.

Licorice fern emerging from a moss mat on a big-leaf maple tree. Like many epiphytes hereabouts, licorice fern's growing season is in the cool, wet part of the year.


Chinook salmon in Issaquah creek.


Thelephora palmata, or "fetid false coral." Fred Rhoades tells me that this smells pungently of some kind of combination of garlic and burning rubber. Shamefully, I didn't notice.

Other kingdoms, Newhalem

Fungi: The elegant agate-like fans of Trametes versicolor, or Turkey Tails.


Protista: Fruiting bodies of Ceratiomyxa fruticulosa or coral slime mold.


Plantae, Fungi, and Bacteria: come together in the lichen Lobaria oregana. Along with a fungus and an algae, these lichens have nitrogen-fixing cyanobacteria. When they fall from trees, they fertilize forest soils.