26 Feb 2017, 8:12 pm
We have appreciation threads for many things here at WP (skunks, Babylon 5, cartoon characters, etc.), but as far as I could tell we have no appreciation thread for mushrooms, lichens, and all manner of other strange and wonderful forms of fungi and their allies.
So post pictures of your favorite mushrooms, slime molds, lichens, brackets, pixie cups, and molds. They're everywhere, and so many of them are beautiful. 
Red chanterelles:
26 Feb 2017, 8:16 pm
British Soldier Lichens (Cladonia cristatella):
26 Feb 2017, 8:49 pm
Slime molds are some of the most beautiful of tiny alien creatures:
http://indianapublicmedia.org/amomentof ... ds-aliens/
26 Feb 2017, 8:55 pm
Boletus edulis--Porcini--is it all right to talk about which ones we like to eat?
jrjones9933
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26 Feb 2017, 8:57 pm
26 Feb 2017, 8:59 pm
^^ A lovely pore mushroom.
Yes indeed, as long as you post a pretty picture of them growing wild (or maybe in captivity).
26 Feb 2017, 9:01 pm
^ Speaking of which, if you flip over the cap, the patterns of pores and gills are often gorgeous up close:
26 Feb 2017, 9:32 pm
Wood Ear (Cloud Ear?) Fungus
nick007
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26 Feb 2017, 10:12 pm
Mario mushroom 
26 Feb 2017, 10:41 pm
^ Looks like Mario has a poisonous hat!
Amanita muscaria:
27 Feb 2017, 12:26 am
http://indianapublicmedia.org/amomentof ... ds-aliens/
slime molds are very interesting eukaryotes, but they're not really mushrooms, are they? in fact, they're not really a fungus at all! the term refers to a wide group of unrelated organisms that can exist either as an individual cell or part of a colony, grouped under the paraphyletic eukarya kingdom protista. when separated, the cells can find ways to "reunite".
water molds are protists as well, as is kelp probably.
they're little more than a big clump of slimy amoebas, but some specimens have shown an impressive ability to undergo behaviors otherwise characteristic of organisms with nerves and simple ganglia.
MushroomPrincess
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27 Feb 2017, 12:36 pm
27 Feb 2017, 2:00 pm
I gathered over a kilo gram of these last fall. They are delicious with steak
27 Feb 2017, 4:07 pm
Yes indeed, the heading for the thread was intended sensu lato, without regard to monophyly. I thought of calling it "Cryptogam appreciation thread" but that seemed too obscure.
So slime molds, even pulsating slime molds, definitely count!
27 Feb 2017, 8:18 pm
Pixie cup lichen:
28 Feb 2017, 7:51 pm
Ganoderma applanatum, the Artist's Conk:
so called because you can draw on it's smooth lower surface:
