I’m not sure what is happening with this mushroom. From what I’ve read mushroom don’t have seeds, then have tiny spores that geminate in the ground.
It looks like this mushroom sprouting milkweed seeds. Maybe it’s a fungus growing from the fungi?
I tried googling it, but I can’t find anything about it. But then I’m not really sure what to search for. So if anyone has any idea what is happening with this mushroom, I’d love to know.
Last week I put up a picture of this nest I saw while walking in the woods. I asked if anyone knew who it might belong too.
Josie suggested a Hermit Thrush and Marianna an Eastern Towhee.
So I read up on both birds and from the pictures I saw and reading what each bird makes their nest from, to my untrained eye, it could be either.
If I had seen the eggs, that would have helped. While the Eastern Towhee can have eggs in a variety of colors, the Hermit Thrush has a light blue eggs sometimes spotted.
I also listened to some of their calls on Cornells All About Birds. The Hermit Thrush has a haunting song, that sounds vaguely familiar to me, but I’ve never been good identifying bird calls.
But even narrowing it down to two birds is pretty good. I’ll keep an eye on the nest when I walk that trail. Maybe the bird with come back again next year.
May I venture to attribute the mass of blonde hair on the mushroom in the opening photo as a mycological homage to a late great bountifully coiffed country musician, perhaps?
hahahaha…. I literally laughed out loud Amy. A beautiful tribute to Dolly.
My Seek by INaturalist app on phone identified it as ‘syzygites megalocarpus’. Googling that came up with a description of it and similar photos. Quite interesting! Your photos and nature writing are remarkable Maria. Thank you, Barbara from Maine.
Ok Barbara, I’m googling that right now…..Yes, that looks like it! A parasite mold that grows on mushrooms. I found this interesting piece on them. https://www.mushroomexpert.com/syzygites_megalocarpus.html
Thank you!
Hi Maria,
I suggest submitting your photo to Northern Woodlands snd ask them. https://northernwoodlands.org/witwit/guess-the-genera
Good luck, I’m curious to know too!
Oh what fun Collette, I never heard of that site. I’m going to do it. Thank you!. I’ll definitely report back with anything I find out.
Hi Maria
I sent the picture to my friend who is a mushroom expert. Is it possible that milkweed silk was on the ground and got caught in the mushroom gills when opening? I can’t really tell what the texture of the “silk” on the mushroom is like. I will let you know what I find out.
It’s possible, Marianna, like the mushroom was the perfect breeding ground for the seed maybe? Thanks for looking into it!