northeast-flora-and-fauna

Since I posted my 1st mushroom picture a couple days ago [1], I figured I'd follow it up with another photogenic mushroom for Throwback Thursday. This 1 is probably a Hemlock Varnish Shelf mushroom. At least I got an iNaturalist confirmation on it. As far as identification goes: The good news is that it doesn't appear to have any look-alike mushrooms that are poisonous. The bad news is that it does have look-alike relatives, and without identifying the tree it was growing from, it's hard to tell some of them apart. This mushroom does look varnishy though, doesn't it? Two of its similar relatives are: Ganoderma lucidum - This is a European relative that's certainly out in California and Utah but can occasionally be found in the northeast, feeding off of hardwood trees. Lingzhi (aka Reishi) - This mushroom is native to China and Japan, and it's probably not here in the US. It especially likes maple trees, and has long been used in Chinese and Japanese folk rem...