I love this post because I’ve been exploring and sharing the wonders of the universe on this website for almost five years now….and still a whole new world can open up. Mushrooms! All this time exploring images and then I stumble upon something as common as fungi and find the stunning variety of size, shape, color and texture shown in these photographs. Not only are there dazzling mushrooms, but photographers who travel the world to specialize in capturing their distinctive beauty. Who knew? Certainly not me.
Or this Coprinus Comatus:
I love this post because I’ve been exploring and sharing the wonders of the universe on this website for almost five years now….and still a whole new world can open up. Mushrooms! All this time exploring images and then I stumble upon something as common as fungi and find the surprising and unexpected variety shown in these photographs. Not only are there dazzling mushrooms, but photographers who travel the world to specialize in capturing their distinctive beauty. Who knew? Certainly not me.
Amethyst Deceiver
Crepidotus
Cyathus Striatus, also known as the flutter bird’s nest
eyelash cup
From the rainforest of the Napo River region of Peru by Art Wolfe
A part of the stinkhorn family, also called the red cage. This species starts off with a round egg-like appearance before sprouting its intricate detailing. By Clathrus Ruber
Mushrooms and mycelium are an essential part of the planet’s ecosystem and the life cycle as they recycle nutrients, keeping forests healthy. Mycelium is the technical term for the cells that make up the root systems of mushrooms. The mushroom caps themselves are the “fruit” of the fungi. A mushroom can go dormant for an entire century and then suddenly start to grow again.
Mycelium has unique enzymes that can break down the component cells of wood, cellulose and lignin. But it also has complex chemicals that can be used up to clean up oil spills and other types of soil or water contamination. In other promising experiments, mycelium has been grown on woodchips and placed in sacks to filter water which contains petroleum products, heavy metals and toxic bacteria.
Pholiota limonella or Pholiote jaune citron. By Francis Bosse
Black Trumpet Mushrooms (Craterellus cornucopioides)
Boletus frostii
Dryads Saddle by Andrew Harris
These brown bodied Puffball Mushrooms get their name because when they fully mature they release their spores in a dust-like cloud that resembles a mini explosion. Puffballs are mainly used in Tibet to make a dark colored ink.
Despite the fact this mushroom appears to leak strawberry jam, it is not edible. Found in Europe, North America, Iran, and Korea as of 2010.
Leratiomyces or blue blob (of course.) This mushroom species includes a vast number of different looking mushrooms, most of which can be found in wood chip beds, sand-based soil, and dry grasslands.
Xylaria by MycoImage on flickr
Bamboo Fungus (Phallus indusiatus) ~ © Taylor F. Lockwood
Steve Axford lives in the Northern Rivers area of New South Wales, Australia and is “doing essentially what he likes.” Luckily for us, this is photography, especially mushrooms. His photos of Australian mushrooms forwarded to me by Murray got me started on this journey of mushroom images.
By Steve Axford
By Steve Axford
By Steve Axford
Campanella By Steve Axford
By Steve Axford
By Steve Axford
By Steve Axford
By Steve Axford
By Steve Axford
Marasmius By Steve Axford
By Steve Axford
By Steve Axford
By Steve Axford
By Steve Axford
By Steve Axford
There are more than 70 species of bioluminescent mushrooms, or mushrooms that glow in the dark. Though some may be drab during the daytime, all are mesmerizing at night.
Mycena-chlorophos
N. gardneri mushrooms grow at the base of young babassu palms in Brazil. A bland tan by day, the fungi emit an eerie green light by night.
Also known as the “bleeding fairy helmet,” Mycena haematopus is one of the prettiest bioluminescent mushrooms. They can be found throughout Europe and North America. They get their name from the red latex they ooze when they’re damaged. What the bleeding fairy helmet lacks in the brightness it makes up for in the beautiful burgundy hue of its caps.
Jack-o’lantern mushrooms get their glow from an enzyme called luciferase – the very same way luminous fireflies get their glow!
This mushroom appears to be lit up from the inside. As unique as this mushroom looks, it is from the Morchellaceae family, one of the most widely recognized, sought after, and edible mushrooms.
While some mushrooms glow by the chemicals that make up bioluminescense, Martin Pfister from Germany creates a magical glow by lighting them up from behind with tiny LED bulbs.
Mushroom with an ice bonnet.
‘Devils Urn’ SauriaMami, by Carla Wick
Geastrum Minimum
Hairy Trumpet Mushroom (Panus fasciatus) ~ By Ken Beath on flickr
Cedar Apple Rust Gall by by melaniecparker on flickr
by Taylor Lockwood
Chorioactis
Cookeina tricholoma
Cystoagaricus trisulphuratus, Malaysia – By Alan Cressler
Panus Fasciatus
pecker heads
Phallus Indusiatus
Cystoagaricus trisulphuratus, in Malaysia by Alan Cressler on flickr
Rhodotus Palmatus, also known as the wrinkled peach can be a variety of sizes, colors, and shapes due to variations caused by light received during development.
Mushrooms and ferns.
Fluted Bird’s Nest Fungi or Cyathus striatus, whose spore-filled “eggs” or peridioles , are dislodged by raindrops channelled down the inner grooves of the pot.
Photo by Prof KMS on Flickr
Chicken of the Woods
Scizophyllum Commune
This post was so hard to end. Every time I looked for more information or attribution I’d land on another website with more mushrooms of all kinds. Believe me, this isn’t the half of it. I finally had to tell myself I had to stop gathering more images for now. I’d just put up another mushroom post in future. So stay tuned.
Thanks to Murray for getting me started on the world of mushrooms. To Steve Axford, to Martin Pfister, to earthporm, and to pinterest.
Truly amazing and unbelievable. “Who” would imagine all of the varieties and colors? Just goes to show you that every color on the color wheel comes from nature…thanks, Dusky!
These mushroom pix are truly astonishingly amazingly gorgeous!!!
Thank you again for the on-going wonders of your website, Dusky.
Magnificent Pix
Браво Фотографам! Благодарю Вас!Фантастический мир
грибов!Они так же красивы,как без них не могла бы
существовать наша Планета.Вечные труженики.Никогда не
задумывалась и не представляла о бесконечном грибном
царстве.Очень интересно.Жду следующего поста.
amazingly beautiful, even their names are evocative of mysteries
and wonders!
BEAUTIFUL…. I DIDN’T KNOW THERE WERE THAT MANY
Who knew?????? this is a wonder of nature that we would not know if not for the intrepid photographers and the people who share them with us. Thanks and Kudos to all involved.
My goodness, unbelievable the total amount of various colored-shapes of mushrooms. I wonder how many of these are poisonous. Just wondering………….4:37pm here in the desert of Arizona, USA.
I am grateful to God for his creation. But I am deeply grateful to the photographers who were able to capture the beauty through their camera lense. Human mind and imagination should be greatly appreciated. I thank all the photographers.
Mani
Another mesmerizing collection! I love this site!
Very interesting , Thank You.
Is mistletoe a parasite or a fungi? How many mistletoe
are their? Thanks for opening our world to Ducky’s world
of wonder.
How little any of us know about the wonders of the World. I am so grateful for those who research and photograph these wonders. All of us miss so much without them and we are very grateful to Dusky for publishing these wonders for us.
I love the variety of God’s creation!
Thank you so much for showing us the beauty of even that that is overlooked, or rarely looked at with appreciation. A good lesson for us in all parts of our lives.
What leslie shular said.
Absolument ravissant et très intéressant, j’ai découvert des couleurs insoupçonnées et magnifiques, c’est une merveilles de la nature, merci de nous la faire partager.
Thanks to you and the photographers who shared their love of these
exotic mushrooms, I am filled with wonder and delight.
I am in ABSOLUTE awe! Overwhelmed! Jaw dropping! wonder. What beauty we have been given even in the smallest things. I look forward to more mushrooms. Thank you.
There is an excellent TED talks about the importance of fungi in ecology.
The are all so beautiful, I enjoyed so much looking at them all.
WOWZA!!! Who knew?
I AM DAZZLED WITH ALL YOU DO!!!!!!! THANK YOU FOR THE INSPIRATION ON THE BEAUTY OF THIS PLANET. LANA
Nature is beautiful as you have captured for us. Thank you!
Love looking at your site, makes me feel like I just traveled the world for a few moments when I look in awe at these photos. Thank you!
As a poet I need inspiration. Each mushroom does the job nicely. They have taken me to other worlds. I’ll hav eto write a story about life in each one. The mushrooms can be the characters or the world or the village they all live in. And here I thought Avatar was all origional thought.
Our God is so wondrous, so awesome, so worthy to be praised!
I don’t open your emails right away. I let them sit there and tantalize me. I know I will always be in for a wondrous treat. Thank you Dusty. Maggie
Thanks Mary. I’ll have to check it out. Hopefully others will too.,
Thanks Mary. I’ll have to check it out. Hopefully others will too.,
Brad & Jo, I hope you didn’t think that all these terrific
and gloriously beautiful mushrooms were ignored by
me. Wow! I had no idea…… and certainly no one in
school (college or high school) ever bothered to do
the research necessary to add to our education! I’m
sure the photographer went out of his mind to find
all of these!
Until seeing all those, I had virtually no idea anything
like this wide variety existed. Oh, sure, we occasionally
found a few different and rather dull varieties when out
in the woods here in Michigan, as well as in Arizona
and New Mexico…….. but NOTHING to even compare
with any of these gorgeous, colorful living things.
I was happy to finally see a Morel Mushroom, one of
the tastiest and most delicious edible mushrooms
that we had fun going out and finding in May. We
never saw any that looks like it has a light bulb in
the center. They were so delicious, it was almost
as though we couldn’t get enough. We used to
bring home bushels of them, literally.
And, not to change to subject too much, one of
the other treats acquired in the wild in April that
made many a dinner table a feast (along with
Morels) were freshly dipped Smelt. Mmmmm!
Smelt, of course are small fish about 6 or 7″
long. Hundreds of them could be dipped from
streams in nets perfectly shaped for that. We
ate pretty well off the land naturally.
Getting back to all the gorgeous mushrooms,
I’m sure some of those are not edible. Even
if we did have such a wide variety to choose
from here in the U.S., dads and grandpas
were probably not certain about some of them.
If you’ve ever had opportunity to eat Morels,
you’d find they’re one of the most delicious!
The white ones in super markets aren’t even
a close match.
Thanks for bathing my vision in some of the
most beautiful fungi on the planet!!! It was
truly enjoyable, and I’m keeping what you
sent. It’s worth another WOW!!!
“How many your works are, o Jehovah!
You have made all of them in wisdom,
The earth is full of what you have made” (Psalms 104:24).
Amazingly beautiful.
Could this be used for schoolprograms to show the children -that are way to much inside buildingstructures nowadays to my opinion- the stunningly beautiful nature of our dear Mother Earth?
Thanks to all photographers -I see a lovely picture and sometimes I am in awe about the quantity of patience it must have taken to get that image ‘captured’……….
And a very special thanks to you, Dusky (as I understand) for taking the time to put this together for us….. I wish you happy ‘hunting’ for your next item……Hahaha…
Petra
THANK YOU! With all the stupid news out there, it is SUCH a relief and breath of fresh perspective to consider the works of Joy and Beauty by our Creator Yahweh and His genius x Infinity!~
In so so many ways~ Mushrooms and more, constantly amazed!
Bless you and your work to remind us humans that this world has so much beauty and eternity is in our hearts!
Can you eat them?
Some yes, some are deadly poisonous.
How very beautiful and wondrous. How can people say there is no God.
Oh my god! – is all I can say…
Thank you for your collections of beauty and wonder – our eyes need some help seeing it, so we can remember why we are here –
Wonderful. So much is hidden from us. Thank you for revealing
so much of it in your wonderland.
Who knew that there are thousands of mushrooms in the world, and such beautiful and unusual looking ones too. Not the garden variety mushroom that you find in the supermarket to add to you salad or saute.
I think that this wonderfull photos must be usefull for knowing which of these are poisonous and which are for eating.
I´m waiting for this information.
Thanks in advance
I hope you’re not waiting for me to tell you what is poisonous. I only gather the images I like for my website. If the place I found them describes what we’re seeing, I include that. Most of the time there isn’t much information but I still find the photography fascinating.
Such incredibly quiet beauty! I am filled with an even deeper reverence for our Mother earth. How do I walk respectfully through the forest, lest I tread innocently on any of these beautiful works of art? A renewed love. Thank you.
I had no idea there were that many varieties of mushrooms. All so different from one another and the colors are beautiful. Keep up the good work.
And God made all people different,
all with beauty in spirit and covered
with His tender love.
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