Day 19: I should have warned you right off the mark that this was going to be a fungus-filled week, and that some of my presentations would have greater aesthetic value than scientific. The important thing is that I got Out There, and that in so doing, I managed to retain my sanity for a little longer. As if COVID and the election weren't enough for anyone to have to bear, Murphy's Law has been dogging my every move for the last week, bouncing along on the rails of one mischance after another. I no sooner surmount one issue than another springs up in its place. Last night, my electric teapot died. Go on, laugh. I'll be laughing with you, but at the same time, I'd really like the ongoing series of unfortunate events to cease. So, back to the business at hand: mushrooms. I'm unwilling to go out on the limb to identify these as anything but a Mycena sp., although I suspect them of being M. haemotopus. Quite honestly, I didn't know what to check until after I'd got home, and I haven't been able to get back to the site yet. They will exude a reddish latex when broken or cut if they are M. haemotopus (which grows on wood, unlike M. sanguinolenta, a terrestrial species which also "bleeds"). They were very striking, even in deeply shaded forest. Scientific nomenclature aside, let's just call them Pretty Pink 'Shrooms and admire the strong sense of community they put forth.
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