Yellow Club Fungus

1/3/2014
This find is another fungi that I found that day hiking with my mother. This one is significantly easier to ID.

MushroomExpert.com describes it as "1.5-6.5 cm high; 1-5 mm wide; cylindrical and unbranched; sometimes somewhat flattened, or with a groove or a twist; dry; bright orange or yellow; fading with age" 

Very proud of this find, as it is the first brightly colored club fungi that I have encountered. 

   

Cortinarius

1/3/2014

I was hiking with my mother in January and spotted this series of mushrooms along the trail. 

I didn't do anything about it for a very long time but now, almost 7 months later, I decided to swing back in and check on my Project Noah post and I found that someone had commented on it.

This person suggested that it's a Cortinarius species, possibly along the line of Cortinarius semisanguineus. Looking up both of those specimens, I feel as if that's an accurate assumption but I don't have enough information on it to develop the id any further. Maybe if I run into another, somewhere down the road, I'll come back and ID it. For now, however, I'm letting the case go cold.

Barking Treefrog

7/26/2014

One day before work, I found this guy hanging out on the windowsill

I initially believed that this was a Squirel Treefrog, based on this source from the University of Florida. After posting it on Project Noah, I was told that based on the granulose skin, which the squirrel treefrog doesn't have (it's actually smooth), it's actual identification is that it's a Barking Treefrog. Scientific name Hyla gratiosa. He was only about an inch and a half. I didn't think that the frog was a barking treefrog because all of the pictures of the barking treefrog had these splotchy markings on it's back. But the UF source also explained that "back is marked with dark, round spots that may fade when the frog changes color, and sometimes with small, yellow flecks. Sides may be marked with light stripes with irregular borders," so that explains why it's appearance didn't match the photographs online. Other pertinent information that I drew from the reading I did, "Diet: Beetles and other small invertebrates. Habitat: Found throughout most of Florida (except the Everglades and Keys), usually high in treetops. Has also been found burrowed in sand under logs or grass near breeding sites. Breeds in a variety of shallow wetland habitats (fish-free), including cypress domes, bogs, wet hammocks, and flooded ditches."

PROJECT NOAH
WIKIPEDIA
EOL