Let's put the fun back in fungus!

So, it's been raining in Tampa Bay. A lot. Depending on what part of the Bay area you call home,
you've received between 5 and 16 inches of rain in the past few weeks. Even for a wet season, it's been a little crazy. With all this rainy weather and grey skies, you may have noticed some new additions to your gardens: fungus!

When the word fungus is said aloud people usually respond one of two ways: "Gross!" or "Yum!". We'd like to propose a third option: "Oooh, pretty! What is it?"

So, what is a fungus?

fungus

noun, plural: fungi
[fuhn-jahy, fuhng-gahy], funguses.
1.any of a diverse group of eukaryotic single-celled or multinucleate organisms that live by decomposing and absorbing the organic material in which they grow, comprising the mushrooms, molds, mildews, smuts, rusts, and yeasts, and classified in the kingdom Fungi or, in some classification systems, in the division Fungi (Thallophyta) of the kingdom Plantae.

Dictionary.com

Unknown mushroom, Tampa FL

A Garden of Variety

So fungus can be a lot of things, and not just your garden variety mushroom. Here are some of the more common mushrooms you may encounter in the wild and in your dinner.

Green Spored Parasol (Chlorophyllum molybdites) is
toxic, but looks like store bought button mushrooms.

Gilled Mushrooms: Gilled mushrooms or Agaricales are sometimes known as toadstools are the common mushroom shape with which you are likely familiar. The button mushroom and portobella mushrooms found in grocery stores are good examples of this type of mushroom. The underside of the mushroom cap has gills and the spores are produced between the gills.

WARNING: MOSI Outside rule of nature #2: If you don't know what it is, don't eat it. Many mushrooms are toxic and mushrooms in the genus Amanita can cause liver failure and death if consumed. There are lots and lots of toxic mushrooms in Florida because Florida is pretty much the Australia of the United States.

TLDR: Don't eat mushrooms you find in the yard unless you are an expert mycologist.

Stinkhorn mushroom. True to form, it was stinky.

Stinkhorns: One of the more surprising mushrooms, often found in urban settings, is the stinkhorn. These mushrooms seem to appear quite suddenly, have bizzare (and sometimes a bit phallic) appearance, and as the name implies, they stink.

Chanterels: The vase shaped chanterelles have a vase-like shake and false gills that are actually closer to wrinkles on the underside of their caps. They often have a ruffled appearance.

Morels: Prized in cooking, morels have a fascinating honeycomb like appearance on the outside and don't grow well in cultivation. Each year, the harvest of these edible mushrooms is gathered by people who wild pick these mushrooms in both Europe and North America. Those who go in search for morels should be experts and be able to easily spot the differences between the edible morel and the inedible false morels.

Two Colored Bolete (Boletus bicolor) is edible but with bright red
and yellow coloring, it looks dangerous.

Bolete: The bolete mushrooms have the same toadstool shape, but rather than gills on the underside of the caps, they have dense pores and look a bit like sponges.

Puffball: Puffballs don't have an upen cap that produces spores, rather the spore are produced on the inside of the fungus. When the puffball dries up and falls over or is otherwise opened, the spores disperse in what looks like a brown puff of smoke. If you ever step on one of these, you'll probably recognize it right away.


There are lots of other types of mushrooms. You can find more information about the broad categories of mushrooms at the Mushroom Expert website. Use the morphology chart below to help identify characteristics of mushrooms that you find to help narrow down your identification search.

Mushroom Morphology

Slime Molds

Slime molds are a fungus like organism that are a common find after heavy rains. Many of them can be quite interesting. Often found on dead wood, slime molds come in an array of colors and shapes. Each slime mold is a network of individual cells that swarm together when conditions are right for growth. 

Yellow witch’s butter or yellow brain fungus (Tremella mesenterica)

Unknown Xylaria fungus growing on a decaying log.

Learn More about Fungus:

• Mushroom Expert
• American Mushrooms
• North American Mycological Society
• Gulf States Mycological Society
• Introduction to the Slime Molds: Berkley

So, have you found any toadstool, fungus, algae, stinkhorns or slime molds lurking in your yard after all of this rain? We'd love to see what else is growing around town!

Coral slime (Ceratiomyxa fruticulosa)on a fallen piece of Live Oak looks a bit like frost.

If you'd like to learn more about how to identify mushroom, here are a few good places to start:

• MycoKey Morphing Mushroom Identifier
• Urban Mushroom
• American Mushrooms
• Mushroom Expert
• Rogers Mushrooms Visual Key
• Backyard Nature