Pholiota

From Mushroom Expert: "Most members of the genus Pholiota are wood-rotting saprobes with brown to cinnamon brown or rusty brown spore prints, gills that are attached to the stem but do not run down it, and rings or ring zones. "

From the Northwest Key Council: "The genus Pholiota contains mushrooms with usually central stems, mostly growing in clusters or groups on wood or other dead organic matter. Their spores are brown, ranging in shades from rusty brown to light dingy yellow-brown.

Edibility: None are known to be deadly poisonous, but several species are reported to cause gastric upsets in some people."

Coprinopsis atramentaria

Also called: common ink cap or inky cap

This mushroom has has gills that turn black and eventually liquefy, creating an "ink."

Wikipedia says: "Consuming Coprinopsis atramentaria within a few hours of alcohol results in a "disulfiram syndrome".

Coprinus --
Coprinellus micaceus

Also called: Glistening Inkcap

From mykoweb: "Coprinellus micaceus gets its common name from the glistening particles that cover the young, developing caps. These soon wash or wear off. However, it is still easily recognized by the yellow-brown caps, clustered fruiting habit, deliquescing gills, and tendency to fruit near rotting wood.

Wikipedia says: "Coprinellus micaceus is a common species of fungus in the family Psathyrellaceae with a cosmopolitan distribution. The fruit bodies of the saprobe typically grow in clusters on or near rotting hardwood tree stumps or underground tree roots. "

From First-nature.com "From tree stumps or buried wood of broadleaf trees, Coprinus micaceus, formerly known as the Mica Inkcap but now called the Glistening Inkcap, arises in small to medium-sized clumps from spring until early winter. This edible mushroom is potentially poisonous if collected from roadsides or polluted land, where the mycellium can bioaccumulate heavy metals such as cadmium and lead; this results in the mushrooms containing high concentrations of these toxins."

Russula

Mushroom Expert.com says: "The genus Russula includes some very beautiful and interesting species, and a lot of hard-to-distinguish species."

Wikipedia says: There are "around 750 species of Russula. They are typically common, fairly large, and brightly colored"

Echinodontium tinctorium

Also called: Indian Paint fungus

This can be used for dyeing. It is said that some Indian tribes applied it to skin to prevent chapping

Rogers Mushroom says: " no stem. Bracket up to 40cm across, 30cm wide, 20cm thick, hoof-shaped; upper surface dark dull brown to olive-black, bristly and hairy becoming hard, brittle, and cracking concentrically into blocks. Teeth up to 3cm long, flattened, thin and brittle at first, becoming thick and stout with blunt ends and crowded in age; pale to pinkish, grayish buff. Flesh up to 5cm thick, with blackish brittle upper layer 2mm thick, hard, woody, zoned; brick red. "

Neolentinus lepideus

Also called: scaly lentinus or train wrecker

Tanya H. noted that the name Train Wrecker "comes from the tendency of this fungus to destroy railroad ties." Thanks Tanya

Wikipedia says: "Neolentinus lepideus fruit bodies are tough, fleshy, agarics of variable size. The cap is at first convex and flattens with maturity while the margin remains inrolled. The cap may grow up to about 12 cm, while the stem grows to about 8 cm in height. The white, cream to pale-brown cap cuticle is distinctively covered with concentrically arranged dark scales which become denser towards the depressed cap centre.

The gills are white and their attachment to the stem is adnate to subdecurrent or decurrent.

The stem bears the same coloration as the cap and is also covered in dark scales in the region below the white ring.

Cortinarius

Wikipedia says: "Cortinarius is the largest genus of agarics, containing over 2000 different species and found worldwide.

A common feature among all species in the genus Cortinarius is that young specimens have a cortina (veil) between the cap and the stem, hence the name, meaning curtained. Most of the fibers of the cortina are ephemeral and will leave no trace once gone, except for limited remnants on the stem in some species. All have a rusty brown spore print.

Suillus

Mushroom Expert.com syas: "The distinctive features or this genus of boletes includes the following:
Growth under conifers
Slimy caps
Glandular dots on the stem
Large pore openings that are often arranged radially
A partial veil that leaves a ring or tissue hanging from the cap margin

The problem is, few of the Suillus mushrooms know they are supposed to manifest all of these features at once. This makes some of them a little difficult to identify to genus"

Wikipedia says: "Structures of the fungi in this genus in common with other members of the genus Boletales include the presence of a cylindrical stem, cap, soft flesh and tubular hymenium.

Specific characteristics common to most species in Suillus are the cap cuticle which is often slimy and sticky when moist, the presence of darkly staining, clustered, sterile cells called cystidia that give the tube mouths or the stipe surface a speckled or glandular appearance, spores that are usually cinnamon brown or chocolate brown"

Lactarius deterrimus

Maybe Lactarius deliciosus

Also called:
false saffron milk-cap or Red pine mushroom or Pine mushroom

MushroomExpert.com compares : Lactarius deliciosus var. Lactarius deterrimus.

"Pleuromacrocystidia absent; cut surfaces staining slowly dark red; spores 7.5-9 X 6-7 µ; documented in Michigan under various conifers but not occurring in western North America according to Hesler and Smith; not occurring in California according to Methven. Nuytinck's studies support the European species Lactarius deterrimus as legitimate at the rank of species, so Hesler and Smith's varietal name is now misapplied--

but the mushroom is morphologically, ecologically, and geographically distinct;"

Wikipedia says: "This medium-sized fungus has a more or less orange cap, which develops green spots in old age or if injured. Its orange-coloured milk stains maroon within 30 minutes."

Hypholoma fasciculare

Also called:
sulfur tuft or clustered woodlover

Wikipedia says: " The hemispherical cap can reach 6 cm (2? in) diameter. It is smooth and sulphur yellow with an orange-brown centre and whitish margin. The crowded gills are initially yellow but darken to a distinctive green colour as the blackish spores develop on the yellow flesh. It has a purple brown spore print.[3] The stipe is up to 10 cm (4 in) tall and 1 cm (? in) wide, light yellow, orange-brown below, often with an indistinct ring zone coloured dark by the spores. The taste is very bitter, though not bitter when cooked, but still poisonous.

MushroomExpert.com says: growing in clusters on decaying logs and stumps of hardwoods and conifers; fall and winter, sometimes in spring; widely distributed in North America. Cap: 2-5 cm; conical to convex at first, becoming broadly convex to flat; smooth; dry; bright sulfur yellow to greenish yellow when fresh, sometimes yellowish orange when young, often with a darker center; the margin sometimes with small partial veil fragments.

Gills: Attached to the stem or pulling away from it; sulfur yellow, becoming olive or greenish yellow, eventually dusted with spores and therefore spotted purplish brown to blackish (see third illustration); close or crowded.

Stem: 5-12 cm long; 3-10 mm thick; more or less equal, or tapering to base, bright yellow to tawny, developing rusty brown stains from the base upwards; bright yellow partial veil present in buttons (see the bottom illustration), soon disappearing or leaving a ring zone near the top.

Macrolepiota procera

Also called: parasol mushroom

Comment from Sava: We don't have Macrolepiota procerain PNW. Our shaggy parasols are all in the genus Chlorophyllum; my bet for the one in the picture is C. brunneum. (http://nature.berkeley.edu/brunslab/ev/CHLOROPHYLLUM.pdf)

Wikipedia says: Parasol mushrooms have "a large, prominent fruiting body resembling a parasol. It is a fairly common species on well-drained soils. It is found solitary or in groups and fairy rings in pastures and occasionally in woodland."



Mushroom Expert.com says: "The Parasol Mushroom is one of the more distinctive members of the Lepiota family. Defining features include the little bump in the center of the mature cap; the brownish scales; the slender (not swollen) stem that is covered with small brownish scales; and the distinctive, double-edged ring, which slides freely up and down the stem. The flesh, when sliced and exposed to air, does not turn orangish or pinkish, and the stem does not bruise yellow or reddish when rubbed."

Rogersmushrroms.com says:
"Cap 10–25cm across, button spherical or egg-shaped expanding flattened with a prominent umbo, pale buff or grey-brown covered in darker shaggy scales. Stem 150–300´8–15mm, 40mm at the bulb, white, with a grey-brown felty covering which becomes split into snake-like markings as the stem expands; ring large, double, white on upper surface, brown below, movable on the stem. Flesh thin, soft, white. Taste sweet, smell slight, indistinctive. Gills free, white. Spore print white. Spores ovate with a germ-pore, dextrinoid, 15–20´10–13m. Habitat in open woods and pastures. Season summer and autumn. Uncommon. Edible – excellent.

Psathyrella candolleana

MushroomExpert.com says:
"The cap of this species is honey brown when young, but it soon fades to nearly white--especially when it grows in open places.

The spore print is dark brown, as are the mature gills. The young caps have hanging partial veil remnants on the margins, but there is typically not a persisting ring on the stem. The stem is very fragile, and snaps easily"

Wikipedia says:
"Psathyrella is a large genus of about 400 fungi, and is similar to the genera Coprinellus, Coprinopsis, Coprinus and Panaeolus, usually with a thin cap and white or yellowish white hollow stem.

But the caps do not self digest as do those of Coprinellus and Coprinopsis. Some also have brown spores rather than black.

These fungi are often drab-colored, difficult to identify, and inedible, and so they are sometimes considered uninteresting. However they are quite common and can occur at times when there are few other mushrooms to be seen".

Calocera cornea

This is a jelly fungus that grows on decaying wood

MushroomExpert.com says: "Look for Calocera cornea after heavy rains on the barkless, dead wood of oaks and other hardwoods, where it appears as clusters of slick, cylindric fruiting bodies with rounded-off or somewhat sharpened tips.

In fact it looks more like a tiny club fungus than a jelly fungus, but microscopic examination reveals the distinctive Y-shaped basidia that characterize members of the Dacrymycetales-- a large group within the jelly fungi.

mykoweb.com says: "Because of its erect fruiting body, inexperienced mushroom hunters often confuse this jelly fungus with a small coral, e.g. Clavulinopsis laeticolor and/or C. fusiformis. These closely resemble Calocera cornea but can be told apart by a more brittle texture, and habitat preference-- on duff, rarely on wood. Like many jelly fungi,

Calocera cornea is capable of rehydrating to its original form after drying."

Scleroderma cepa

Also called:
Earth Ball

It is not a puff ball

Scleroderma cepa is soemtimes used as a soil inoculant in agriculture and horticulture

mycoweb says: "Like other members of the genus Scleroderma, S. cepa has a thick, tough peridium. This character along with a firm, dark-purple gleba that is never soft, or semi-liquid, helps to separate it from members of the "true puffballs," i.e. Calvatia, Lycoperdon, etc. "

Clavulina

Wikipedia says: "Clavulina is in the family Clavulinaceae,.. Species are characterized by having extensively branched fruit bodies, white spore print. Branches cylindrical or flattened, blunt, pointed or crested at apex. Spores subspherical or broadly ellipsoid, smooth, thin-walled, each with one large oil drop or guttule. The genus contains approximately 45 species

Shaggy Mane
Coprinus comatus

Also called: shaggy ink cap or
lawyer's wig

Mushroom Expret.com says: "Shaggy manes are frequently found in disturbed ground, and the edges of dirt roads "

Wikipedia says: " The young fruit bodies first appear as white cylinders emerging from the ground, then the bell-shaped caps open out. The caps are white, and covered with scales—this is the origin of the common names of the fungus. The gills beneath the cap are white, then pink, then turn black and secrete a black liquid filled with spores (hence the “ink cap” name). This mushroom is unusual because it will turn black and dissolve itself in a matter of hours after being picked or depositing spores. When young it is an excellent edible mushroom provided that it is eaten soon after being collected (it keeps very badly because of the autodigestion of its gills and cap)."