The Spore Trail

Gallery

Real finds from real walks. A few are confidently identified, several are honestly still a mystery, which is part of the fun.

A dense rosette of overlapping fan-shaped caps growing in grass, likely a giant polypore.

A rosette at the base of a tree, likely a giant polypore

Two tall, shaggy white ink cap mushrooms growing in grass.

Shaggy ink caps, unmistakable once you've spotted a few

A small solitary mushroom with a brown umbonate cap on moss.

A small solitary cap on moss, this one stayed a mystery

A cluster of pale cream mushrooms with reddish centers growing on leaf litter near a mossy stump.

A woodtuft-type cluster, exactly the kind we never touch

A cluster of small brown mushrooms with yellow stems growing from the base of a mossy tree.

More of the same cluster, growing straight out of the bark

Three tiny pale mushrooms with ribbed, bell-shaped caps growing on moss.

Tiny bonnets (Mycena), easy to miss if you're not looking down

A cluster of tan mushrooms with orange centers growing from the base of a mossy stump.

Another woodtuft-type cluster, different stump, same caution

A dense tiered shelf of small brown mushrooms growing in rows on a log.

A tiered shelf of the same cluster type, growing in rows

A cluster of blue-gray, fan-shaped oyster mushrooms growing on a fallen log.

Oyster mushrooms, fanning straight out of a fallen log

A very large, dense cluster of hundreds of small mushrooms covering a mossy stump.

A genuinely enormous cluster, hundreds of caps on one stump

A cluster of rust-colored mushrooms with darker centers growing among ferns and fallen beech leaves.

Rust-colored caps tucked among ferns and beech leaves

A close-up of the overlapping, ruffled caps of a giant polypore rosette.

A closer look at the rosette from the top of the page