Notes from Sam Ristich (March 2005) on some Northeastern winter mushrooms

37 of Sam’s Northeastern Winter Mushrooms

[Note: 11 (* asterisk) are not in the Audubon Guide and only 12  (+) have been found so far in Central Park]

• *Angelina rufescens: only found on recently cut oak stumps; teleomorph black; after several years it grows internally.
• *+Apiosporina morbosa: only on Prunus (cherry & plum).
• +Daldinia concentrica: casts its spores in a circadian cycle.
• Hypocrea pulvinata: on pores of old Piptoporus betulinus.
• +Hypoxylon fragiforme: always on beech.
• *Hypoxylon fuscum: on alder; gray in the anamorph stage, red becoming black in the teleomorph.
• *Phaeocalicium polyporaeum: found as a parasite on the pileus of Trichaptum abietinum & T. biforme; also found on T. subchartaceum.
• Ustulina deusta: the anamorph stage is white to gray; the teleomorph is a black crust.
• *Taphrina amentorum: only on fruits of alder.

Gilled & gill-like mushrooms

• +Schizophyllum commune: watch it open and see what happens to the gills.

Polypores

• Caloporus (Gloeoporus) dichrous: pink elastic hymenium.
• +Cerrena unicolor: produces a pheromone that attracts the giant ichneumonid moth to deposit eggs in logs containing horn tail larvae.
• Coltricia cinnamomea: very abundant along logging roads.
• Cryptoporus volvatus: very strange polypore where the margin of the pileus grows over the pores, thus the name crypto; beetles in the family Cisidae feed on the fungus and release the spores; always grows on dying trees. 
• Ganoderma tsugae: remarkable story to watch the development of the white bubble stage to the red varnished pileus. Look for the horned fungus beetle feeding in the context. 
• Globifomes graveolens
• Inonotus obliquus: I find only in wounds of birch.
• +Oxyporus populinus: always found in wounds of red maple; sporocarps become covered by moss.
• Piptoporus betulinus
• Poronidulus (Trametes) conchifer: with splash cups and oidia.
• *Trichaptum abietinum
• +Trichaptum biforme
• *Trichaptum subchartaceum
• Tyromyces (Oligoporus) caesius: look for this bluish white polypore on conifers and find the blue spore print.

Tooth Fungi (and toothed resupinates)

• +Hydnochaete olivacea: always on underside of oak branches.
• +Steccherinum ochraceum

• *Aleurodiscus amorphous: on conifers.
• +Aleurodiscus oakesii: mostly on hop-hornbeam.
• *Hymenochaete agglutinans: when its host twig contacts another species it produces a glue that glues the twigs together. We found 20 glued twigs on a hazelnut.
• +Laxitextum bicolor: “soft stereum.”
• Peniophora rufa: 95% on poplar.
• Stereum (Xylobolus) frustulosum: only on oak.
• Stereum (Haematostereum) sanguineolentum: bleeds red; on conifers.
• +Stereum striatum (sericeum): only on hornbeam.

• Astraeus hygrometricus: survives the winter.

Rust Fungi

• *Gymnosporangium juniperi-virginianae: produces beautiful yellow jelly horns; alternate host is apple.
• *Pucciniastrum goeppartianum: witches broom of blueberry; also incited by a rust; alternate host is fir.