Favoritos de zitserm

It's my first time finding this species! On a living Pin oak (Quercus palustris), about 4 feet from the ground. This polypore superficially resembles the Dyer's polypore, which grows on conifers. Like the Dyer's polypore, the Shaggy bracket has yellowish, ochre bands of color zones. Soft and moist to the touch, very fuzzy, stains dark brown when handled. The hairs are bristly and look like tiny bottle brushes (see closeup in photo 2). No noticeable odor. A dark brown, dried out conk could be seen right underneath the fresh one. I'm assuming that's last year's conk. This fungus is used medicinally in Eastern Asia as part of cancer and diabetes treatment.

Powdery mildew on Quercus sect Lobatae (Q. rubra or Q. velutina) sapling.

Appendages on chasmothecia mostly unbranched, but I found a few that had branched appendages. Perhaps the branching has to do with mature vs immature chasmothecia? Ascospores two and three septate.

Diderma subfloriformis

Spores: dense small warts
Capillitum: profuse, flexuose and pale with swollen parts, maybe warts
Sporocyst: globose, pale grey, light ochraceous, dehiscence near petaloid. Dark grey/blue when immature
Sporocarps: ±1.3mm

Powdery mildew on Cornus sp

Chasmothecia with their candelabra like appendages are shown. The closeups of the appendages are under 400x magnification.

For the host plant, Cornus alternifolia, see
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/240412261

Water droplets on cap turn orange. KOH on cap turns olive green. Stem stains orange from handling. Two large mushrooms growing near a makeshift compost pile in the woods. Caps about 5" in diameter, with dark pink scales. Gills cream colored, ruffled around the margin of the cap. Stem streaky, pink, with a ring near the top of the stem. Leucoagaricus americanus is supposed to have a red KOH reaction, so I'm thinking this is another species. The cap turned dark pink overnight, as I was taking the spore print. Spore print is white. Elliptical, dextrinoid spores (last photo).

A pair of lilac colored, gilled mushrooms. Each cap was about 1.5 cm in diameter. Stems were conjoined, about 5 cm long. I found a few others nearby, some with caps about 3 cm in diameter. The cap stained blue instantly upon application of KOH. The stem was a light yellow color and was quite hairy near the base. Growing on leaf litter, near a young Quercus rubra, under Lindera benzoin.

I found this beautiful fly just relaxing on the underside of a Psathyrellaceae mushroom. The fly had very colorful eyes - they were red, green and yellow. There several large Eastern Black Walnut trees at this spot.