Favoritos de damontighe

HAY-F-007583
the worst Lactarius I've ever tasted. Immediate fire at the tip of my tongue, so bad I couldn't taste anything the rest of the day. The next day the tongue felt bured, day 3 tongue has papellae that have swollen are and are hopefully cycling

Latex unchanging
Grey blush on the stipe
Zonation on the cap
Cap surface sticky
Flesh relatively dense feeling

p3 3-2

Found by @samzanita at the base of a blade of grass on the underside of a log. Same specimen as this observation https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/199743127

The specimen was collected by Nate Dube and will be examined by them under higher magnification.

It was actively raining that day hence the shiny wet surface of the specimen.

Found dead along shore. No conspicuous cause of death that I could see.

I understand there was a prominent red-brown algal bloom (Heterosigma akashiwo) in the same area just a day prior. A possible cause of death.

Rediscovered this observation from 2018 with no small amount of excitement; I think it may show Pleurotus cystidiosus with both its anamorph and teleomorph on display!

See the second picture for a diagram of my assumption. Unfortunately I didn't have a microscope in 2018, so no spore shots are available. The third and fourth images isolate the anamorph and teleomorph respectively.

I am aware that there are a few (closely related?) Pleurotus spp. that can also present anamorphic forms, so please let me know if the identification is off.

Growing on the hollowed-out inside of a corticate Acer sacchariferum stick. The “heads” of some of the synnemata were being eaten by millipedes. Clamped hyphae in the base of the synnemata with lateral “nubs” that may have been the starts of blastoconidia or “secretory cells”. Brown conidia breaking off from clamped hyphae (arthroconidia) in the “heads” of the synnamata within a drop of slime. Conidia measurements from Piximetre: (11.6) 12.5 – 19 (23.9) × (4.8) 5.2 – 6.5 (7.1) µm, Q = (1.9) 2 – 3.5 (5); N = 30, Me = 16.2 × 5.8 µm; Qe = 2.8

Individual conidia: 16.94 × 5.91 µm, 12.83 × 6.48 µm, 16.69 × 6.55 µm, 13.60 × 5.93 µm, 14.11 × 5.80 µm, 15.73 × 6.06 µm, 11.90 × 5.12 µm, 12.98 × 6.82 µm, 15.12 × 7.15 µm, 16.32 × 5.72 µm, 13.73 × 5.61 µm, 11.58 × 6.09 µm, 11.95 × 5.84 µm, 14.72 × 5.07 µm, 19.02 × 6.23 µm, 18.22 × 5.47 µm, 17.87 × 5.17 µm, 17.45 × 6.34 µm, 18.37 × 5.42 µm, 19.05 × 5.26 µm, 15.82 × 6.27 µm, 17.72 × 5.71 µm, 16.88 × 5.67 µm, 16.51 × 5.35 µm, 17.55 × 5.49 µm, 17.44 × 5.35 µm, 23.85 × 4.78 µm, 18.33 × 5.91 µm, 12.52 × 5.35 µm, 22.65 × 5.80 µm

Side by side of co-occuring Octoglena sierra (top) in the family Hirudisomatidae and Bdellozonium cerviculatum (bottom) in the family Polyzoniidae. You can see the characteristic upturned caudal edges of the tergites of Hirudisomatidae in O. sierra, vs the not upturned, smooth caudal edges of the tergites of Polyzoniidae in B. cerviculatum. Octoglena sierra (as is the case with many hirudisomatids, but not all) also has a broad telson.