Hoosierfunguy

Welcome Annette. There are so many ways to learn. The best thing I've found is to get out into the woods and glean from a many as you can as well as read some good books. This forum has a few very knowledgeable people and they have forays every year.

Welcome Mr. Guy..We're all novices. The smartest of us all doesn't even know 1% of everything there is to know about one mushroom, but we're learning...lol Really cool user name btw. I live in Northwest Indiana. I've never found the mother load of morels, but I have found the Mother Load of many other delectable Micro Rhizome Fungi fruiting bodies.

That's cool. Looks like a false morel. I've never found one before, but have seen a lot of pictures of them. Gyromitra esculenta can be deadly if eaten raw and still toxic if cooked.

Cool. Thanks Chris. I'm curious to know if the properties are the same (or similar) as Chaga found on Birch, Aspen and Poplar, being an immune system booster, with antioxidants and effective at fighting cancer. They were both found on white oak trees, being the second and third fruiting bodies I've found on oaks, all within 100 yards of each other.

Okay, found a couple of these

Cool. Any advice on the best way to harvest it, so it might continue to grow in the future?

I'm headed to the woods tomorrow, where I found that growth a few years ago. I'm planning to go back and see if it's still there. I'll take pictures of it before I harvest it. If anyone wants a sample for study, let me know.

The one I found was in northern Indiana.

Duplicate post I can't delete, just edit

If this is indeed Chaga, then I'm sure it's the same growth I found on an oak tree. If another specimen is needed from another source, I'd be glad to not only harvest one, but also show where it's at to anyone researching this

Seriously? That must be a new discovery. I'm looking forward to seeing something published on that. Can you please update on this thread when that happens?

It's not Chaga. I saw this exact same formation on a wounded oak tree around here. It's a growth. My first thought was Chaga, But like you noted, it wasn't on birch. After having found Chaga in Minnesota, it is not Chaga. The look alike that I found on an oak appears to be some kind of sap build up on a diseased oak, as when I cut it off, there was quite a bit of liquid. The inside doesn't have that golden color to it. It's more rusty.

The pictures didn't show up. Did you mean that it wasn't found on a birch tree?

This mushroom is too old for me to get a positive ID from just a photo, but it does look like an old laetiporus. See if it comes back next year.

Yum! Nice find. The hens should be coming up about now.

Great topic. I started my mycology adventure using the ASFGNAWM also. Early in my identification years, I came across what I thought were parasol mushrooms. If I remember correctly,, the field guide mentioned that the toxic lookalike was uncommon and could be positively identified by the spores under a microscope. I didn't have a microscope, so I played the odds. That was a HUGE MISTAKE! I honestly thought I was going to die. The vomiting was indeed violent and frequent. It lasted for three full days and dehydrated me, took all my energy and I felt like I was only moments away form becoming corpse finder matter. With the naked eye, I really don't think there's enough differences between the two, to positively identify, but the book does describe the spore shapes which distinguish the difference. I'm only going by memory, so I might be mistaken in a point, but I will never forget what I went through. The lookalike is toxic enough to become fatal. No mushroom is worth that risk. That's why I have become a proponent of 100% positive identification before SAMPLING a new mushroom.

I'd say they were Hebeloma syrjense (corpse finder mushroom), but it looks like old "Jack" isn't pushin up daisies, mushrooms or anything yet. ? That is an impressive cluster. Very few choice, edible boletes can grow for very long without being riddled with larvae.

For some reason, the notification link in gmail brings me to the forum in a different layout and in that layout, the home link doesn't have the scheduled events, but has a drop down menu, and in that menu, it does have the "calendar" which doesn't have any events saved on it. However, when I went directly to the website from my mobile browser, the schedule appears on the actual home page. This may be a gmail/ Google issue.

Is the calendar your speaking of on a Facebook page? I've checked the calendar on this site and there's nothing.

I didn't even know there was one. It's not on the forum calendar and I don't have crackbook:-/, so I don't even know where McCormick creek is or what time

It looks to be a Purple spore puffball. They are probably the only puffball i enjoy eating with a really rich mushroom flavor. But you never want to eat any puffballs that don't have solid white flesh. There's also a toxic look alike called a pigskin poison puffball. The outer layer looks a little different, but they are small in size and similar in color. When in doubt, throw it out.

I can only suggest that you be sure of the tree ID and seek out the older, larger trees. Morel season is nearing its end in southern Indiana. Another strategy I've hear heard repeatedly is to check out areas where there has been a fire within the last few years. I hope you find the motherload! ????

Here are two fairly good videos that might help

What kind of trees are you looking under?

Yes they are. The first two pictures look to be grey morels and the last picture is certainly a half free morel.