New Mushrooms added to our Door County Mushroom Guide

 

Spinellus fusiger, a mold that infects mushrooms!
Spinellus fusiger, a mold that infects mushrooms!

Late summer and fall have been very wet and that is good for finding more mushrooms. My Door County list has grown to 598 species. The site with the most, 244 species, is Whitefish Dunes State Park. Now Toft Point is in second place with 150. New descriptions of 20 more species found at Toft Point since early September are now on the Cofrin Center for Biodiversity web site, including 68 photos to add for the new species and better pictures for some that are already in the site.

Two species found are also new to Door County. They are Agaricus cretacellus and Gomphidius glutinosus. Fortunately when I found one of these and did not have a camera, my friend Beth Bartoli had hers and was able to get good photographs.

A very different type of fungus was found on a small Mycena species growing on the ground in the woods. It is called the Pin Mold or Bonnet Mould in England. It is parasitic on several species of mushrooms. It was first discovered by a German naturalist in 1818. The Zygospores are produced in black balls at the ends of fine filaments which coat the Mycena mushroom.

Some people despair at the wet soggy autumn, but I rejoice for the welcomed moisture that will aid trees going into the winter season and help mushrooms continue their important work as nature’s recyclers.

Charlotte Lukes