A pink mushroom

By Aaron Horrell

Autumn is a good time to see mushrooms in the Southeast Missouri woods. Many of the spring and summer mushrooms are short lived and long gone, but some, like the two I show here, are easily found now that the leaves have fallen.

The two different mushrooms I show you here were growing so close they were touching each other. They were growing on a fallen red oak log.

The one that mimics the look of a turkey's tail is a false turkey tail mushroom. It is thin, woody and has an orange-brown underside. The beautiful pink one is called the coral-pink merulius. It is similar in size to the false turkey, but thicker, softer and has a white underside. At top center you can see the undersides of each.