Yellow ringed polypore

2/24/2012
found a nice polypore on an unidentified log (I hate those!)

3.7 cm wide
3 cm long
yellowish ring on outer edge
middle ring, paleish color (small amount of brown close to yellow ring)
closest to attachment point, light brown color
underneath, yellow pores
large, visible
~7 pores /mm
~134 /.5 cm
1 mm outside ring surrounding pores

Let the identification begin!
possibilities:

trametes
phaeolus

http://www.messiah.edu/Oakes/fungi_on_wood/poroid%20fungi/species%20pages/Trametes%20hirsuta.htm

3/20/2012 

Took a visit to the local library and flipped through the pages of National Audobon Society Field Guide to North American Mushrooms

Berkeley's Polypore (447)

lookalikes: Grifola frondosa, laetiporous sulphureus & Meripilus giganteus.

Yet none of them truly match my specimen -________-

Common Blue Violet (Viola sororia)

2/24/2012
I find wildflowers beautiful and fascinating. So on my little park excursion I took a photograph of a pretty purple one,
flower was about 2 cm long
had 5 purplish petals
one flower per stem
12.5 cm stem length
patch of leaves at base of flower stem
2 cm leaf
heart shaped
branched leaf veins
toothed edges

pretty easily identified as the Common Blue Violet. Scientifically Viola sororia
I just looked up some florida wildflowers and it was the third maybe fourth one down.
according to wikipedia:
'Beyond its use as a common lawn and garden plant, Viola sororia has historically been used for food and for medicine. The flowers and leaves are edible, and some sources suggest the roots can also be eaten. The Cherokee used it to treat colds and headaches. Rafinesque, in his Medical Flora, a Manual of the Medical Botany of the United States of North America (1828–1830), wrote of Viola sororia being used by his American contemporaries for coughs, sore throats, and constipation."

http://www.projectnoah.org/spottings/9188380

Turkey Tail (Trametes versicolor)

2/24/2012
okay now onto some fungi I found!
this first one I found growing on an unidentified log, I couldn't tell what kind it was. I even looked around for alive similarities to help me identify the log, but no luck.
The second I spotted this fungus, I immediately thought of the turkey tail fungus, also known as Trametes versicolor. so I suppose that's the best place to start.
I took the true turkey tail test on http://www.mushroomexpert.com/trametes_versicolor.html and the hypothesis seems to stand. Also I tried to do a pore test on a piece of white paper and nothing showed up, the pores of turkey tail are white, another characteristic. Interesting facts about the turkey tail fungus:
a good diagram for the many uses of the turkey tail is at https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXTm3v889AHla-_WJSqq7uwsfqoYgFBmXnuXyunz9PDj0H4NZ_Pbq_IiclZPDl1EuX5z6j-7c0W9ptQymOJGq48j1jf0BY32iB7GXkw50IVwNXDqJ0r_qKuURnyEQqIcf7AOSa_VoR8aik/s1600-h/Trametes+versicolor.jpg

http://www.projectnoah.org/spottings/9183434