Lance Svenson

For a guide focusing on edible mushrooms, I would suggest Edible and Medicinal Mushrooms of New England and Eastern Canada by David Spahr. Even if you're not in the northeast, it probably has plenty of mushrooms in your area. The author is also very cautious, and only recommends the safest mushrooms.

This website has thousands of images of fungi, all either creative commons or public domain:
mushroomobserver.org

I was wondering, are there any mushrooms that could be grown on dead leaves? We just put 24 bags of leaves from our yard on the curb.

I once found a buried acorn that was colonized with mycelium, so I assume this would work.

Okay, I think its one of these three species:
-Psathyrella Pseudovernalis
-Parasola Conopilus
-Psathyrella Cystidiosa

Some pictures of the gills.

I found these mushrooms on a rotting log in the woods in Maine. My first thought was Streaked Coincap, but the spore print was dark brown or black. Does anyone know what these are?

Paul Stamets suggests cutting a piece of flesh from above the gills or near the base and placing it on agar.

I read about strain banks in a book by Paul Stamets. Is there any communal strain bank, like the ATCC but for mushrooms?

I find a lot of shelf fungi out in the woods, and I am interesting in culturing them. I though to collect the spores I could tape a piece of paper to the underside and come back the next day. What season do shelf fungi drop their spores?