New Old Camera!

This is a little bit of a cheating post. I do have a mushroom to share, but I don't yet know what it is. I'm cheating because my new camera arrived today. It's the same model I'd been using, so I won't be able to snap the kind of insect and other small being photos I dream of, but at least I will have current photos to choose from here. I paused along Beach Drive on the way home from work today - I needed a mushrooming fix, and I have heard tell that morels are out in force (though I may have missed the window).

This afternoon I encountered several RAPs (Random Anonymous Polypores) and several specimens of THAT mushroom. "THAT" mushroom is one that I have been encountering since I began the hobby...it appears early in the season and lasts for several months. It has absolutely generic features, and it completely defies identification. I also found the interesting Boletinoid mushroom I will show below (which eerily resembles THAT mushroom except that it has pores instead of gills).

Enjoy this obligatory new-camera closeup of Franklin. "Lookit that punum" says the stereotypical zany aunt.

The underside of the mushroom I brought home. It has white pores which run down the stem, and it grows from rotting wood.

It has a mottled brown cap, and its patterning is reminiscent of dryad's saddle...though this is certainly not the usual form one would expect of that particular fungus.

It has white flesh which does not stain upon bruising upon exposure. There is also an indentation at the center of the cap, the term for which escapes me. It's called an "umbo" if it's convex instead of concave...

There is no annulus present, and it seems to have no veils either. I now need to wait for a spore print and consult my guides. If I ID this thing, I will update.

This is one of the first photos I took with the new camera. I didn't know what I was doing with all the settings, so it came out in this odd aspect ratio because of my zoom.  In any case, the photo is meant to display the distinctive marbled, flaky bark of the American sycamore. There wasn't a whole lot going on this evening around my apartment, so I had to look to the trees. Fitting, I suppose, since tomorrow is Arbor Day.

Well, like I said, this is a bit of a cheat. G'night folks!