Bob Woolley of Asheville, North Carolina, sent in some pictures of fungi (one is a lichen, which is part fungus) and a big honking rattlesnake. Bob’s captions and IDs are indented, and you can enlarge the photos by clicking on them.
Here’s a sample of mushrooms I saw on a recent hike in Pisgah National Forest, just north of the town of Old Fort, North Carolina:
Eastern Destroying Angel (uncertain Amanita species):
Chicken of the Woods (Laetiporus sulphureus):
Turkey Tail (Trametes versicolor or close relative)L
Again the ChatGPT identifications:
Green-spored parasol (Chlorophyllum molybdites):
Fly agaric (Amanita muscaria):
Earthfan (Thelephora terrestris):
Red-mouth bolete (uncertain Boletus species):
Sickener russala (Russula emetica):
Goldstalk bolete (Aureoboletus / Boletus auripes):
White polypore (Trametes hirsuta or pale T. versicolor):
Crested coral fungus (Clavulina cristata):
Waxcap (uncertain Hygrocybe species):
A lovely lichen that ChatGPT identifies as “dog lichen,” uncertain Peltigera species:
This is absolutely not a mushroom in any manner whatsoever. It is an enormous timber rattlesnake (Crotalus horridus); in a magnified view, I counted 16 segments to its rattle. We saw this at the edge of the access road to the park as we were driving away:
I know nothing about mushrooms, so I asked ChatGPT to identify them. I can’t promise it got them right!
A fine offering from the forest floor. The rattlesnake is a good touch. I enjoy forays into a local section of the Siuslaw National Forest on the Oregon Coast. Glad to be able to go into difficult places and not have to consider poisonous snakes. As an added bonus, in our location, ticks or related vermin are absence or very scarce.
Thank you so much for the great photos! I am not at all good at identifying fungi, but appreciate them for their aesthetic value. It was especially nice to see that they were from Pisgah–a forest my family visited many years ago when I was a child. At that time we lived in KY; as an adult I enjoyed photographing fungi at Carter Caves State Park.
I love what you saw. All the varieties are so beautiful. Very magical looking.
I’m glad you saw the snake as you drove by.
Thanks!
Very nice! The last picture would have been jarring had our host not provided a trigger warning in the intro. 🙂
Thanks for the pictures. Fungi are fascinating.
And thanks also for pointing out that the long skinny thing you found isn’t a type of mushroom, or I might have tried to pick it when I go out foraging!
Lovely. Fly Agaric isn’t technically a “Magic Mushroom” (psychedelic with psylocibin)
but was used (I think in Siberia?) by ancient tribes for spiritual purposes.
I have none in my fridge at the moment. 🙂
D.A.
NYC
Cool!
That is one beautiful snek.
Amazing variety and beauty in the mushrooms! Thank you.