Wild Mushrooms of Ainsworth: Elm Oysters

I want to believe that these are elm oysters, as opposed to oyster mushrooms, because I had already found oyster mushrooms. It's no fun finding mushrooms you've found before.


(Click on images to enlarge)

That is a dead elm stump they're growing out of! (But elm oysters do not grow exclusively on elms.) Said elm stump is at the edge of my backyard. The mushrooms in the foreground are growing out of a cut in the trunk.

Here's a bunch of them that I pulled off another elm stump nearby, to see whether they had stems. I see stems, don't you? Not exactly statuesque, but … stems.



And gills. Pretty, huh?



Yet another shot, because — hey, why not?