Here is part one of the mycological mysteries, and now on to part two.

There’s an enormous fallen ash tree just past my yard in the woods, and that first summer I was taking pictures it was host to an amazing number of mushrooms. The most prevalent type was oysters, and my favorite way to snap the photo was from below so the backlighting could show off the ridges underneath.

This is one of many I haven’t been able to identify. However, the photo does show how thickly carpeted the ground is with wild ginger. You can’t walk anywhere back there without stepping on it. August 2016.

I think this is officially called Arcyria denudata. Yeah, doesn’t mean anything to me either. Weird looking even for a fungus, though. It reminded me of extruded Play-Doh. August 2016.

I’m fairly certain this is a wood ear, the second most prevalent type of mushroom on the above-mentioned ash tree. I haven’t seen them in the woods since that summer. August 2016.

Whenever I take pictures, it seems that the first bunch of them are only warm ups. These days I usually take the first few photos of something that’s not that interesting simply to get the jitters out of the way, or get into the groove, or whatever it is. This picture is an exception, however, as I’d just gotten out of my car and saw these at the edge of the parking lot. Not sure what they are, but the fan shape is pretty cool. (Ha!) August 2016.