Psathyrella sp.
Sadly, it was just some well-aged Russula.
Species is the olive shaggy parasol Chlorophyllum olivieri.
I like how they look like cake pops before they open up
From below you can really see the nice contrast between the pale gills and blue everywhere else
This mushroom is an Entoloma in the subgenus Leptonia, probably something like Entoloma subeuchroum or Leptonia subeuchroa if they decide to split Leptonia into its own genus as mycologists have been discussing.
Host is a crack-cap bolete (Xerocomellus diffractus). The mold is either Hypomyces chrysospermus or Hypomyces microspermus, you can only tell them apart under a microscope.
These are highly prized for dying fabrics. They tend to turn all black as they get older which has led to them being given another name: "the bear poop fungus" because a few too many dyers have gotten their hands unspeakably dirty in eagerness to reach for what they thought was this mushroom.
I don't dye fabric myself but I was able to give this one away to a friend who can put it to good use.
Want to know what that mushroom that keeps popping up in your yard is for? Bring them in and have them examined by expert identifiers.
There's also a giant display showcasing specimens of the various mushrooms of the Pacific Northwest, cooking demos, cultivation workshops, and more!
Sadly, only very rotten one on the left was. The other two are Cortinarius sp. with nearly identical caps.
Underside:
These are highly variable, they're often brown on top with a yellow stem. I was doubting my initial ID, thinking they might be Chrysomphalina aurantiaca because the color was so off so I took them to my mycology club and had it confirmed.
The Pacific Northwest Craterellus was just called by the European species name "C. tubaeformis" for a long time but it's not the same species, "C. neotubaeforumis" is a name that's been proposed but not yet formalized.
The ones I found were growing on a log but Pholiota can parasitize living trees so I made sure to keep them in a non-mesh bag.
They're are edible and occasionally cultivated. I plan to try some soon because I can't resist trying something so scaly and slimy that looks like you shouldn't eat it.
Found in my yard yesterday, growing sideways from under a tarp. He was fused to his chonky little bro.
Unfortunately the cracking in the stem meant I had to toss most of it but I got enough for a single serving. I'll probably fry it up with some eggs or something.
Called the "Dyer's Polypore" because people use it to make fabric dyes which sounds like another hobby I don't have time for. The PNW version turned out to be a distinct species from the European Phaoleus schweinitzii which is the name field guides have been using for decades.
This is softer than most polypores, I was surprised how easily a chunk came off.
Here's the same piece a few hours later after the stains where I touched the pores have fully darkened.
Magnified! The pores are pretty unusual, shallow and angular.
These are closely related to Amanita Muscaria the Fly Agaric, one of the most recognizable mushrooms around. Before I was very familiar with panthers, I used to think of them as a brown "palette swap" of A. Muscaria but they're actually pretty different from each other.
Panther Caps tend to be smaller and more stocky than Muscaria and have an actual sack-like volva at the base rather than the "bulb with rings" Muscaria has.
They contain the same poisons as A. Muscaria, ibotemic acid and muscarine, but in much higher and potentially deadly concentrations. As such, it is inadvisable to attempt to detoxify and eat these as you can with A. Muscaria (the poisons are both water-soluble so if you're willing to take the risk, they can be removed from Muscaria by boiling one or more times with lots of water which should be discarded each time).
A. Pantherinoides found in Western North America, is distinct from A. Pantherina which is found in Europe. The Western Panther sometimes has uniformly dark brown cap like A. Pantherina, but the cap is often two-toned (as pictured in the main photo on this post), honey-colored, or even completely straw-yellow (which makes it very difficult to differentiate from all the other straw-yellow Amanitas).
Genus Parasola doesn't really deliquesce to ink like the other inkys but they're very similar otherwise so they're usually considered inky caps anyway.
Here are the same Parasola two days after the first photo, as you can see they just sort of shrivel and tatter.
I can't say for sure which species of Parasola these are because species within this genus tend to be difficult/impossible to differentiate. Even just within the Pacific Northwest this genus contains many cryptic genetic species which don't even have names yet, much less reliable descriptions.
I thought this was a Hygrocybe at first and was very surprised that the spore print was brown. I love the little grooves on the stem.
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