Show me your fungus. (Mushroom Photos)

Christopher Weeks wrote:It’s hard to get a picture that captures all the weirdness. It’s growing in my garlic bed, and has encompassed a couple of the garlics and a bunch of weeds. I have no idea what it is beyond pretty cool and kind of hard-surfaced.

That one looks a lot like the Dyer's Polypore (Phaeolus schweinitzii), a common parasite on Douglas-fir in the Northwest. See what you think:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phaeolus_schweinitzii

Mushroomexpert:

https://www.mushroomexpert.com/phaeolus_schweinitzii.html

I see the Dyer's polypore all the time. As the common name suggests, it is used to dye fabrics.

M.K. Dorje Sr. wrote:I see the Dyer's polypore all the time. As the common name suggests, it is used to dye fabrics.

Very cool! I bought my daughter a copy of this book on using mushroom pigments for her birthday last year so after you mentioned this, I passed it on, she looked it up, and we dismantled the whole thing. It's in the dehydrator now and we're going to dye a skein of undyed yarn with it and a tin mordant and she'll make the rest into watercolor which is her real interest.

Christopher Weeks wrote:

M.K. Dorje Sr. wrote:I see the Dyer's polypore all the time. As the common name suggests, it is used to dye fabrics.

Very cool! I bought my daughter a copy of this book on using mushroom pigments for her birthday last year so after you mentioned this, I passed it on, she looked it up, and we dismantled the whole thing. It's in the dehydrator now and we're going to dye a skein of undyed yarn with it and a tin mordant and she'll make the rest into watercolor which is her real interest.

That's awesome Christopher, glad you two could find a good use for that one! Please let us know how it goes, cause I'm also interested in using mushrooms to dye fabrics.