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Carnonos
The Horned Wanderer

Registered: 02/05/23
Posts: 55
Loc: Terra
Last seen: 17 days, 16 hours
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A Week+ Worth of Gyms! 3
#28462850 - 09/08/23 10:06 PM (4 months, 17 days ago) |
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I think after this season I can definitively say I know how to find Gymnopilus! I'm 3 for 3 on locations I scouted last winter, and boy oh boy did I find some good ones! If you like mushroom hunting stories, you're in for a nice tale spanning the past 9 days. So sit back, relax, grab a cup of tea and...
 
Come with me,
Through C T, To a world of Gymnopilus sporulation...
------------------------------------
First Gymnopilus of the season (and first active mushroom I ever discovered!) was found in a location I'll call Site "A". Located in southern Litchfield county back on August 17. For the sake of brevity I'm just going to post a few photos of the find here, the specifics of this shroom can be found in detail in this post here: Did I do it?

I kept going back periodically to Site A over the next couple weeks to see if I could find any more fruitings, but alas I only found this one bug ridden log. Ever hopeful, I did one last early morning hike through the area on August 31, but after finding nothing over a period of 4 hours I decided to pack it up and go elsewhere to look. Luckily, there was a second site nearby I had been meaning to explore, about 3-4 miles north of Site A (as the crow flies). Site B has a very similar habitat composition as Site A, in fact they are connected by tributaries of the same river system. I hiked up one side of the river, and after a time crossed and came back down the other side. Finding nothing, I breathed a heavy sigh and tried to ease my disappointment with the consolation that I should feel lucky hiking through such beautiful woods and gave up on the hunt in this location. I was only about 5 minutes away from my car with my mind wandering on different thoughts when a gust of serendipitous wind came down the river valley, and I caught a whiff of something faintly on the air. Neurons fired, memories were instantly accessed and I stopped dead in my tracks - "I know this smell" I thought... "GYMS!!!" My pace instantly slowed, like a hunter stalking a deer, but my head was on a swivel quickly surveying the surrounding area. My eyes darted among every log and every stump, on the bank above me, or near the riverbed below, searching for any flash of yellow-orange amongst the greenery. Seconds felt like minutes taking in every detail around me, until I finally rounded a large rock jutting from the hillside and spied this:

Laying right on the side of the trail in the drainage ditch was 4 gyms coming out of the end of what looked like a 4" river birch (Betula nigra) log that had tumbled down from the bank above. I just stood there in shock for a minute - Here?!? Of all places?!? Dozens of people have probably walked by these over the past few days, how did nobody see them? I knew there were other mushroom hunters that frequented these woods (thanks btw to the person who took every chicken of the woods in the forest, I was planning to take samples to bolster my own gene bank, but oh well... sheesh) so I was amazed that these four went completely ignored sitting so close to the trail. If they were a snake, they would have bit ya' walking by! I figured I should be grateful for small favors and collected them to spore print once I got home.
On the way home, I started thinking about what Sites A and B had in common - water table, tree species, plants, soil types, etc... The more I thought, the more certain locations I had hiked before popped into my head. One in particular stood out amongst the rest, and on an impulse I decided to take a slight detour before heading home. I had already spent the majority of the day away, but I still had a couple hours of daylight left - more than enough to check on a hunch. I rolled into the parking area of Site C, about 17 miles north-East of site B as the crow flies, grabbed my camera out of the back and took off on a brisk pace into the woods. Site C sits right on a river similar in size to the one in the previous sites, and also contains extremely similar habitats in terms of tree species and forest composition. However, this site also has an active beaver population which create several wetland areas along the streams that feed into the main river of the forest. It was these intersections of wetlands and waterways I wanted to investigate.
I came around a bend in the trail to the backside of the largest wetland where water from an uphill stream fed in, and ducked under a couple hemlock to get closer to the water's edge. If memory served me right, there were a couple decayed red maples and white oaks that beaver had felled into the edge of the reeds a some years before. As I came upon the largest of them, I walked around it and was greeted by a familiar sight:

It had that same sweet and slightly spicy smell that I had enjoyed earlier that day - jackpot! and it was big! Between 9 and 10 cm, this was the largest G. luteus I had found so far this year. I was thrilled that my guess was correct, this was the right habitat to find them after all. I took my photos and bagged my sample for printing and set off around this wetland, scanning the logs along its edges looking for more of that distinctive yellow and trying to pick up any scent in the air. As I worked my way around, the hardwoods at the waters edge transitioned to a thick stand of pine and hemlock, there were none to be found of course. But as I exited the stand of conifers, I found myself again in mixed hardwood forest now between the wetland and the river it eventually fed into. There, on a decaying stump on the side of the trail, I spied another light-orange disc in the distance:

Same color, same smell. Slightly smaller than the first at 7-8 cm in diameter, but a bit younger as indicated by the bright yellow gills and in better condition. Since this find was a fair clip from the first, I decided to label its location as Site C2 (the previous becoming C1) to help sort the spore prints for my own records later on. Now finding two at this site, I couldn't help myself, curiosity got the better of me and I set off again to look for more despite the sun starting to become quite low in the sky. I followed the hardwoods in towards the wetland pond again, until I found myself in a wide marshy drainage area where water seeped from under the length of a beaver dam and created multiple smaller streams that zig-zagged through the woods before finding their way to the river below. If there is a more perfect habitat for these moisture loving mushrooms I'd like to see it! Winding my way between moss covered trees and over rivulets and muddy pools I finally spied that glint of yellow through the ferns for the third time in this woodland - Site C3:

As I got closer I stared is disbelief, this thing was HUGE compared to all the others I had found that day... 13-14 cm in diameter, almost 50% larger than my previous largest found only an hour before. I thought maybe this wasn't a luteus, maybe it was something else like a junonius since I had read before that luteus topped out at 10 cm in diameter, but other guides I read said luteus could reach as large as 20 cm if in optimal conditions. Gotta love conflicting information, *sigh*... Hopefully once I save up for a decent microscope I can figure this out with the spore prints and dried gill specimens I save from this fruitbody. Whatever it is, I took photos, and added this beast of a gymn to my collection kit for printing. Before I left to head back to my car, I looked around and underneath the log this monster was on and found a couple more buttons starting to poke out from a cleft in the log:

Resisting the urge to collect, I told myself to leave them be and come back next week once they got a bit bigger.
Arriving home, I divided up the specimens by location and got them on some foil to print overnight. Before heading to bed, I checked after four hours had gone by (around midnight), and found the monster had already dropped a decent print, so I put another piece of foil under it and called it a night.
The next morning I was treated to loads and loads of spores as expected of Gymnopilus. Site B's caps produced the least, but that was to be expected since the caps were a bit on the older side. I caught site C's at the perfect time, they dropped nice thick prints.

Fast forward to today (Sept. 8) After experiencing no rain and the hottest temps we've had all summer this past week, I was doubtful those buttons I had left behind had made it through the dry heat. I kept flip flopping between whether I should go or not, but as it would happen things got set into motion that propelled me out into the woods, racing in front of the impending thunderstorms that were to come later this day. A relative who was away called me and asked if I could pop over to their place to grab the mail and do them a favor by mowing their lawn before the rain was forecast to hit. I agreed since they had helped me a few weeks before with revitalizing a garden at my place (plus a 6-pack of beer once they got back) and went over to repay the favor. After an hour and a half of mowing and string trimming, I sat on their porch and watched the cloud patterns changing, indicating that pressure was dropping and storms were indeed just over the horizon. I checked my weather app and saw I had about 2 and a half hours before they were over me, then realized I was only about 10 minutes away from Site C. Fortune favors the bold, and I found myself racing down back roads to get to Site C and get around the wetland loop I had done previously before the thunderstorms drove me indoors. I went the opposite direction this time, hitting C3 (the monster log) first.

To my delight, I saw a large cap as I came upon the log, but it was only the one, something had tore off the second cap before it could fully develop - dagnabbit! It wasn't as large as the monster, but still a respectable 8-9 cm in diameter. After collecting the caps for printing and preservation I took off up the trail again. Site C2 yielded no additional caps, but I guessed it wouldn't since it was such a small stump, so I continued on back through the conifer stands to the hardwoods behind the wetlands and Site C1:

As I came upon the log I noticed how dry the upper surface was, but underneath I could see just the edge of something yellow poking out. Up inside the log, where it was still moist and shaded from the sun, was another cap. A little deformed from having to push out the underside, but still a welcome sight. I recorded and stowed it, then took one look at the darkening clouds through the trees and decided to use a connector to take a slightly shorter trail back to the car. As I rounded the last bend before I was to hike away from the wetlands I noticed a log down in a low lying area away from the water:

Did I seriously just stumble upon another location as I was trying to leave the forest? Did I just find Site C4? I jumped down off the trail and wove my way between the ferns to these orange caps on what looked to be an old large red elm log.

I couldn't believe it, there were as many caps on this one log as I had found in the rest of the surrounding wetland combined! A couple were past (wish I had seen those the previous time I hiked here) but the rest were in good condition, and all had that same classic smell as the others I had documented. I just sat there admiring them for a couple minutes, completely lost in a sort of giddiness for finding this many in one spot. I was quickly snapped back to reality however when the wind suddenly picked up and I heard a soft rumble in the distance. Time To GO! I quickly packed up my finds and high-tailed it back up the trail and made it to my car in record time. As I got back on the road to head home, A few drops hit my windshield, I was literally riding the edge of the storm. After I got home, I turned to see the dark of the thunderclouds appear over the treeline, throwing bolts of lightning in the distance. I stood on the porch and watched the approaching rain, and within five minutes the heavens opened and the hot and dry woods were treated to a much welcomed cool downpour. As I turned to walk in the house to unpack and start printing the mushrooms I had found today I smiled. Rain today, chance of rain tomorrow and the day after too. I can't wait to see what I find next week.
***Addendum: The last tree in this post (site C4) has stumped me for a while in identification. I initially chose red elm as its ID because red maple and basswood, while having similar bark structure on occasion, do not usually grow this straight and tall especially near wetlands in my experience. It may be this tree is an exception from what I've seen and is either a very straight swamp maple or very mature basswood instead of an elm. If anyone is experienced in tree ID from bark alone I'd love to hear your thoughts.
-------------------- All that is gold does not glitter, Not all those who wander are lost; The old that is strong does not wither, Deep roots are not reached by the frost. J.R.R. Tolkien
Edited by Carnonos (09/15/23 08:18 AM)
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CrimsonRambeler
Stranger



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Re: A Week+ Worth of Gyms! [Re: Carnonos]
#28462887 - 09/08/23 11:31 PM (4 months, 17 days ago) |
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They sure are a spore-dropper! Around my part of the globe in the Southwest does luteofolius grow. I've been very blessed to be able to make high quality prints from the first ever I found. It took almost a half a year for me to get them going but I did, and can't wait till I get fruits to print or clone, and I will grow them out a second time with the same method as the first, as long as my spawn making technique and fruiting is easy and fast and remains replicatable. Thank you so much for sharing, I am glad you feel a call to the Gymn. 😝✌️
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Moria841



Registered: 07/02/18
Posts: 4,929
Loc: NJ
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Love this. No experience with G. luteus really, I pick subspectabilis which grow commonly in landscape areas where trees have been taken out, or stumps remain (always fruting nearby the stump but often terrestrially at the bases of oaks), what are the forest types for G. luteus? What kinds of logs am I looking for? And at what level of decay? They do seem to prefer very wet habitats
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Carnonos
The Horned Wanderer

Registered: 02/05/23
Posts: 55
Loc: Terra
Last seen: 17 days, 16 hours
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Re: A Week+ Worth of Gyms! [Re: Moria841]
#28463038 - 09/09/23 07:13 AM (4 months, 17 days ago) |
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Quote:
Moria841 said: what are the forest types for G. luteus? What kinds of logs am I looking for? And at what level of decay? They do seem to prefer very wet habitats
From my limited experience, the forests that these were found in all had a similar specific mix of species - hemlock, birches, red maple, white oak(Q. bicolor?), white pine,and maybe a random other species here or there, but not hickory or red oak. The environments were also very wet with constant higher humidity being right besides rivers or on wetland soils at the base of hills where you'd expect runoff to collect. About half the logs I found had one end submerged in water, the others lying on very saturated soils - the type where if you kneel down for a minute your jeans are damp and dark at the knees when you stand back up. The location should feel shaded with lower light levels - one thing I noticed is when I set me camera to auto, the flash always popped open to take a pic even in the middle of the day. The landscape should feel wet and green - if you don't see abundant ferns and moss and the rocks on the ground aren't dark with moisture you're probably in the wrong spot. Here's a few examples of the habitat near where I found these shrooms:

At least around me, these mushrooms didn't seem picky about tree species - maple, birch, oak & elm were what I found all these on. As far as decay level, slightly spongy on the outside with some more solid wood on the interior, you should be able to stick the point of your pocket knife in about a 1/2 inch or so before you start feeling resistance from more sound wood. On the softer species this means less decayed to reach that point, whereas on the oak and maple it needed to be more heavily broken down. Hope that helps!
-------------------- All that is gold does not glitter, Not all those who wander are lost; The old that is strong does not wither, Deep roots are not reached by the frost. J.R.R. Tolkien
Edited by Carnonos (09/09/23 07:40 AM)
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Lucis
Nutritional Yeast

Registered: 03/28/15
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Re: A Week+ Worth of Gyms! [Re: Carnonos]
#28463165 - 09/09/23 09:17 AM (4 months, 17 days ago) |
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very nice!
-------------------- ©️
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Moria841



Registered: 07/02/18
Posts: 4,929
Loc: NJ
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Re: A Week+ Worth of Gyms! [Re: Lucis]
#28463257 - 09/09/23 10:55 AM (4 months, 17 days ago) |
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Awesome info-- would you mind if I credit your research and add it to the Gymnopilus guide?
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Carnonos
The Horned Wanderer

Registered: 02/05/23
Posts: 55
Loc: Terra
Last seen: 17 days, 16 hours
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Re: A Week+ Worth of Gyms! [Re: Moria841]
#28463334 - 09/09/23 12:12 PM (4 months, 17 days ago) |
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Quote:
Moria841 said: Awesome info-- would you mind if I credit your research and add it to the Gymnopilus guide?
When I started learning about these mushrooms about a year ago, your guide was one of the first things I read online about the genus and started me on my journey to discovering them. The information you and other members of the forum contributed over the years has been invaluable in helping me locate and identify my first specimens - to be able to give back to the community in just over six months of creating an account has been the highlight of my week. I would be honored if you used my info in the guide.
-------------------- All that is gold does not glitter, Not all those who wander are lost; The old that is strong does not wither, Deep roots are not reached by the frost. J.R.R. Tolkien
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raffib128
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Re: A Week+ Worth of Gyms! [Re: Carnonos]
#28463448 - 09/09/23 03:09 PM (4 months, 17 days ago) |
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G. luteus seems to enjoy soft hardwoods, like poplar, in my experience.
-------------------- Same username on Inaturalist.
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Carnonos
The Horned Wanderer

Registered: 02/05/23
Posts: 55
Loc: Terra
Last seen: 17 days, 16 hours
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Re: A Week+ Worth of Gyms! [Re: raffib128] 1
#28467216 - 09/13/23 06:41 AM (4 months, 13 days ago) |
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***** Sept 12 Update *****
Make my accuracy 4/4 sites! After 3 days of consistent rain showers I went out hiking to a park I haven't been to in a while - For those keeping track, this Site D is roughly 1/3 of the way between Sites A+B and Site C. Got out of work early Tuesday evening and was able to search around a nearby soggy forest basin in between wetlands and a few streams and vernal pools for a couple hours before sunset. I had two objectives at this location:
1-Check on a log I knew had Chicken of the woods for fruiting. 2-Poke around for any possible Gyms.
Was on the trail no more than five minutes when I came across the CoW log. From a distance I saw orange, like A LOT of orange, and got really excited - It looked to be a bumper crop this year, so plenty to choose from. Excitement turned to disappointment quickly though... As I got closer I could see that someone had stripped all the the fruitbodies off the log. Dozens if not hundreds of polypores all cut with a knife. Who the heck needs that much mushroom in a single harvest?!?!

I walked away from that log fuming! What jerk takes all that mushroom in one fell swoop? Horrible forager etiquette! And all I wanted was one nice fan to get a print from - I know people can be greedy, but damn does it still surprise me at times!
Leaving that area, I wandered down further into the basin. To be honest I wasn't really paying attention to the woods, I was still thinking about that log. After walking for about 5 minutes I took a big sigh, told myself "maybe next year" and pushed it from my mind and focused back on the trees and landscape around me. Good thing I did, because as I looked up, I caught a flash of color in my peripheral...

See it?
...
How about zoomed in???

Here... I'll give you a hint:


It may not be chicken of the woods, but these were a most welcome sight nonetheless. Just about 30 feet off the side of the trail was a good sized beech log with some waterlogged Gyms growing out the side. They were so wet, the spores were dripping off in rusty red drops! They still smelled amazing though, I've really come to love that scent. I packed up only two of the caps for printing, leaving the rest to spread spores or for others to find (*hint hint chicken bandit in case you're reading this...) and then stood up to leave. Mother Nature, however, decided to give me a consolation prize for missing out on the first log and as I turned around I saw this staring me in the face no more than 5 feet away...

My first ever Hericium!!! And a very pretty and decent sized americanum to boot! Grinning from ear to ear I cut off two of the four branches for printing and cloning then decided to call it a day since the sun was nearly on the horizon and the forest was growing dark. As I left the woods in a much better mood than I started with I mused about the karma of the situation, sure I didn't get any of the Chicken of the Woods I had wanted, but I'll happily take some Gyms and some Bear's Head as a trade anyday! The whole situation made my chuckle, and I started humming a song that seemed very appropriate:
You can't always get what you want,
But if you try sometimes,
You just might find, You get what you need!
-------------------- All that is gold does not glitter, Not all those who wander are lost; The old that is strong does not wither, Deep roots are not reached by the frost. J.R.R. Tolkien
Edited by Carnonos (09/13/23 08:51 AM)
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Carnonos
The Horned Wanderer

Registered: 02/05/23
Posts: 55
Loc: Terra
Last seen: 17 days, 16 hours
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Re: A Week+ Worth of Gyms! [Re: Carnonos] 1
#28471522 - 09/16/23 06:44 PM (4 months, 9 days ago) |
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*****Sept. 16 Update*****
After running some errands earlier today, I ended up being near Site A, so after lunch I decided to stop by for a quick walk. I wasn't expecting much, we had gotten a bit of rain this past weekend up where I lived, but some of the storms had passed around the southern part of the county and it had been sunny and dry for the past three days. Much to my delight, however, as I turned down the trail that led past the first log I discovered Gyms on this year I spied a little bit of orange in the distance...

Almost exactly a month later, they fruited again!

I was so happy to see this spot again, the last time I was only able to find one very decomposed mature cap and a bug-ridden developing cap. Patience seems to have paid off, and now I have multiple good caps printing for this site. I will say I am thrilled to get to be able to record prints for this particular patch - out of all the Gyms I have found this season, these are the only ones I've successfully been able to see greenish-blue bruising on the younger caps. Makes me wonder if the others I've found at different sites are even active at all or if I just found them too late to be able to catch the color (all the more mature caps I've found have bruised brownish, including the ones from this location).
-------------------- All that is gold does not glitter, Not all those who wander are lost; The old that is strong does not wither, Deep roots are not reached by the frost. J.R.R. Tolkien
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Moria841



Registered: 07/02/18
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Re: A Week+ Worth of Gyms! [Re: Carnonos] 1
#28471788 - 09/17/23 12:21 AM (4 months, 9 days ago) |
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At least for subspectabilis, from experience the quite mature specimens don't really bruise much
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timo
Noob


Registered: 09/17/22
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Re: A Week+ Worth of Gyms! [Re: Carnonos]
#28472023 - 09/17/23 08:02 AM (4 months, 9 days ago) |
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Great story! The description of the search is certainly something I can relate to, as mine are very similar. Gyms were my first solo find as well and I've hunted and studied them ever since. Moria's guide was helpful to me as well, and Alan Rockefeller is my guru whether he knows it or not. Great post!
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Icyurmt
Strange


Registered: 04/02/20
Posts: 1,625
Loc: 5a
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Re: A Week+ Worth of Gyms! [Re: Moria841]
#28472748 - 09/17/23 03:20 PM (4 months, 9 days ago) |
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Quote:
Moria841 said: At least for subspectabilis, from experience the quite mature specimens don't really bruise much
It’s the same with luteus from my experience. I’ve intentionally damage the fuck out of them, but the most I’ve ever gotten was a faint greenish tint on the cut cap edge. Seen it plenty of times on others that were growing, particularly younger pins and around annulus, but also occasionally on the caps like the ones above. I’ve been wondering whether or not gyms even have those PsiP and PsiL enzymes that are typically responsible for the blue, or if it only happens in response to external factors causing oxidation.
-------------------- 👁️ 🌊 why you are empty. Hunt for the habitat not the mushroom.
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Carnonos
The Horned Wanderer

Registered: 02/05/23
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Loc: Terra
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Re: A Week+ Worth of Gyms! [Re: Icyurmt]
#28473014 - 09/17/23 08:07 PM (4 months, 8 days ago) |
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So Good News!!!
Got a call from my mom today, she was cleaning up her basement and finally getting rid of some stuff from her divorce with my stepdad when she came across my old student microscope that I got for high school/college! I thought it had gotten left behind at my stepdad's house during the divorce and that it was lost since he's the type to just sell off/junk stuff. Luckily it still had the calibration slide, so I rushed over to get it to start looking at spores this evening. Unfortunately I don't have a camera mount for it, so I had to wing it with my cell phone that only has a digital zoom. Now I only have to save up for a camera mount for my Nikon and I'll be able to get some decent spore and gill shots to help with ID. In the mean time, here's a couple rough shots of the spores I just got from Site A, calibration slide shots are 1 DIV = 0.01 mm.
16x40 optical

16x40 optical / 2.5x digital

16x40 optical / 5x digital

I know they're very rough, but what does everyone think - warty/bumpy enough to be gyms? I'd like to say yes, but I know that's excitement getting in the way of objective thinking at this point...
-------------------- All that is gold does not glitter, Not all those who wander are lost; The old that is strong does not wither, Deep roots are not reached by the frost. J.R.R. Tolkien
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adnex2
Stranger

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Re: A Week+ Worth of Gyms! [Re: Carnonos]
#28501344 - 10/12/23 08:39 AM (3 months, 15 days ago) |
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What a thread, incredible finds and documentation Carnonos.
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jet li
The One



Registered: 07/09/07
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Re: A Week+ Worth of Gyms! [Re: adnex2]
#28501359 - 10/12/23 08:55 AM (3 months, 15 days ago) |
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I'll bet money you collected all the gyms what kind a jerk does that.
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Carnonos
The Horned Wanderer

Registered: 02/05/23
Posts: 55
Loc: Terra
Last seen: 17 days, 16 hours
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Re: A Week+ Worth of Gyms! [Re: jet li]
#28531083 - 11/05/23 07:37 PM (2 months, 21 days ago) |
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Quote:
jet li said: I'll bet money you collected all the gyms what kind a jerk does that.
Touché, but not quite... left many behind at sites where there were multiple specimens or multiple flushes. The only sites where I collected "all" were the locations where there was only 1 cap available to spore print.
-------------------- All that is gold does not glitter, Not all those who wander are lost; The old that is strong does not wither, Deep roots are not reached by the frost. J.R.R. Tolkien
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