Blackdisk Fungus

Order: Pezizales

Genus: Pachyelle

Species: P. clypeata

Identifying Characteristics:

-a small brown cup fungus

- Fruiting Body: To 8 cm across but usually 2-4 cm across; cushion-shaped when young, soon becoming saucer-shaped or shaped like a flattened cup; broadly attached to the wood so that only the edges can be lifted away from the substrate; upper surface sticky when fresh, medium to dark brown, sometimes with a hint of red or purple, smooth or wrinkled, fading with age to tan; without a stem; flesh somewhat rubbery or gelatinous when fresh, sometimes becoming yellowish when torn.

Special Adaptations:

- can be recognized by its growth on soggy logs, its somewhat gelatinous (rather than brittle) texture, and the fact that it clings to the wood fairly tightly, so that it looks flat and only the very edge of the mushroom can be easily lifted

- Saprobic; growing alone or in small groups on rotting wood (primarily the wood of hardwoods) that is usually water-soaked; spring, summer, and fall; apparently limited to eastern North America, but possibly widely distributed.

- Not edible

Swamp Dewberry

Order: Rosales

Family: Rosaceae

Genus: Rubus

Specis: R. hispidus

Identifying Characteristics:

- Leaf structure: leaflets firm or thick, apex rounded, compound, alternate, divided into 3 or possibly 5 different parts, deciduous, shiny and darker green on upper surface and lighter green on underside, edges of leaves have rounded teeth

-Stem structure: trails or creeps, slender, 4-10 inches in height, thorny, shrub-like, woody, sometimes have glands at tip

-Flower: white, 1-3 m wide, can grow singly or in clusters at the ends of branches, 5 petals, sepals joined, develop in mid-summer, petals obovate and broad, many stamens, usually bloom from May to June

-Fruit: reddish- purple when mature, similar to raspberry, tiny seeds, develop in early fall – usually June to August, grows in clusters, receptacle and fruit not separated

Special Adaptations:

-The Dewberry plant prefers to live in conifer swamps, wet hardwood forests, thickets, and usually in an areas that are shaded. It can also live in drainage ditches, low woods and swampy meadows. This plant is found frequently along the edges of wetlands

-It can also live in soils with a pH as low as 4.5, and as high as 7. This plant requires plenty of sunlight and moisture for growth. It also requires oxygenated soils.

Orange Fairy Cup

Order: Pezizales

Family: Pyronemataceae

Genus: Aleuria

Species: A. aurantia

Identifying Characteristics:

- Bright orange to a brillant yellow cup; irregular, thin, brittle

- Cup: deep at first, with an incurved margin; expanding to a shallow, irregular cup or rarely becoming nearly flat.

- outer surface has whitish hairs (use hand lens to see)

- Stalk: lacking or very poorly developed

Special Adaptations:

- Cup is attached to soil at a base point

- edible, said to have a good flavor

Brown-eyed Rimed Lichen

Order: Lecanorales

Family: Lacanoraceae

Genus: Lecanora

Species: L. allophana

Identifying Characteristics:

- Crustose: grayish surface with reddish brown disks

- Thallus: Grayish

- Apothecia: large reddish brown disks- 2mm in diameter

Special Adaptations:

- Brown-eyed Rimed Lichen grows on bark, especially poplar and ash trees

Whitewash lichen

Order: Ostropales

Family: Phlyctidaceae

Genus: Phlyctis

Species: P. argena

Identifying Characteristics:

- Crustose smooth white surface

- Thallus: Smooth white surface. White to greenish, fine to coarsely-granular soredia, few or abundant and covering thallus centre

- Apothecia (produces spores): Extremely uncommon

Special Adaptations:

- Whitewash lichen grows on bark of deciduous trees, especially Northern White Cedar and Red Maple and occasionally conifers

- Can cover large areas

Bleeding Fairy Helmet

Order: Agaricales

Family: Mycenaceae

Genus: Myena

Species: M. haematopus

Identifying Characteristics:

- Cap: Dry; reddish-brown at center to reddish-gray near margin. The shape of the cap of the fruit body will vary depending on its maturity. Young caps, or "buttons", are ovoid (egg-shaped) to conical; later they are campanulate (bell-shaped), and as the fruit body matures, the margins (cap edge) lift upward so that the cap becomes somewhat flat with an umbo(a central nipple-shaped bump)

- Gills: Attached; whitish, staining reddish-brown; edges minutely cottony-white.

- Spore print: White.

- Stipe: Brownish to reddish-brown.

- Veil: Absent.

- Edibility: Edible

- Dimensions: Caps 1-5 cm wide; stipes 2.5-10 cm long and 1-3 mm thick.

Special adaptations:

- Grows of decaying wood

- Mycena haematopusobtains nutrients from decomposing organic matter (saprobic) and the fruit bodies can typically be found growing on stumps and well-decayed logs, usually in groups that are joined together by a common base.

-Several unique chemicals are produced by Mycena haematopus. The primary pigment ishaematopodin B, which is so chemically sensitive (breaking down upon exposure to air and light) that its more stable breakdown product, haematopodin

- releases a red juice that looks like blood

Mapledust lichen

Family: Asconycota

Order: Lecanoraceae

Genus: Lecanora

Species: L. thysanophora

Identifying Characteristics:

- Crustose pale green to yellowish-green surface with a white to bluish webby margin

- Lichens have a structure called the "thallus" which is the vegetive body composed of both the photobiant (the photosynthetic partner in a lichen; either algae or cyanobacteria) and mycobiont (the fungal partner in a lichen). The Mapledust lichen's thallus is: pale green to yellowish green with a white webby margin.

- Apothecia (a disk or cup-shaped structure that produces spores for the mycobiont): Rarely seen

Special Adaptations:

- Grows on Sugar maples, but also on beech, oak, and basswood

- Mapledust lichen tend to grow on young maple trees with smooth bark. As the maple bark ages it begins to ooze alkaline, nitrogenous compounds, which alter the lichen community resulting in a more diverse community.