Mushroom Monday - Ancient Mushrooms from the Past

I found this huge pink capped bitter bolete a good 5 years ago. I remember how it tasted too lol. Its like eating a rotten walnut soaked in motor oil, one of the most bitter things I've ever tasted.

I remember this moment well, it was one of the first morels I ever found in Illinois. Most are blonde morels but this one is what the locals refer to as gray morels.

Here are some scarlet elf cups I found in Wisconsin. Now I know when and where to look for them in Illinois as well. Quite small and easy to overlook.

Here is an artist's conk. I sent this to my wife when we were still dating many years ago. She is a nature nerd too so she liked it lol.

Here are some summer oysters growing on a willow tree I found at night. If you find any edible mushroom growing out of willow they tend to taste sweet, these ones tasted amazing as well as a dryad's I found nearby.

Here is a wiley tame squirrel that came up to me when I was looking at mica caps. It definitely thought I had food but all I had to offer were the boring mica caps.

I was somewhat of a mushroomer noob when I encountered these dryad's saddled. I though I found a rare mushroom as I had never seen them just starting to grow like this.

One year a bunch of these bright orange mushroom grew out of the ground. I thought they might be amanita muscaria guessowii. Loads of these tiny black toads were everywhere too.

Here is one of the few fairy rings I've seen. I have no idea what kind of mushrooms these are, they were fairly large and had features of campestrani but not quite like the edible meadow mushrooms.

That's all for now, thanks for looking :-)