Lichen The Vibe

Spore Sized: The Giant Spring Polypore That Smells Like Watermelon

Polyporus squamosus, known as Dryad’s Saddle or Pheasant’s Back and often placed in Cerioporus, is one of the most distinctive large polypores of spring. Its broad, scaly

Dryad’s Saddle: The Watermelon-Scented Polypore With a Remarkable Double Life

One of spring’s most recognizable large polypores can smell surprisingly like watermelon or cucumber. Polyporus squamosus, commonly called Dryad’s Saddle or Pheasant’s Ba

Spore Sized: Why This Tiny Polypore Has a Fringed Edge

Most people would overlook Polyporus ciliatus, but its delicately hairy cap margin and fine pores make it one of the more distinctive small polypores of temperate forests

Meet the Fringed Polypore: A Small Mushroom With a Remarkable Edge

Polyporus ciliatus, the Fringed Polypore, is a small temperate wood-rotting fungus easily overlooked in the forest. Its minute hairs along the cap margin, combined with i

Spore Sized: How This Winter Polypore Attacks Dead Wood

The Winter Polypore (Polyporus brumalis) is a cold-season wood decomposer with an unusually sophisticated oxidative enzyme system. Growing primarily on dead hardwoods suc

Polyporus brumalis: The Winter Fungus Built for Breaking Down Wood

While many familiar polypores appear primarily during the warmer months, Polyporus brumalis, now often treated within Lentinus, is adapted to the cold season. Its persist

Spore Sized: A Ghostly White Mushroom Growing on Rotten Hardwood

The Ghost Shield (Pluteus pellitus) is an uncommon European wood-decaying mushroom with an unusually pale appearance. Its white to creamy cap, white stem and pinking free

Meet the Ghost Shield: A Rare Mushroom Hidden in European Forests

Most deer mushrooms in the genus Pluteus are associated with brown or gray caps, but Pluteus pellitus, commonly known as the Ghost Shield, takes a strikingly different fo

Spore Sized: The Deer Shield Mushroom’s Secret Identity

The familiar deer mushroom growing on rotting logs is actually at the center of a cryptic species complex revealed through DNA studies, and true Pluteus cervinus is disti

Free Pink Gills, Radish Smell, Horned Cystidia — Meet Pluteus cervinus

The familiar deer mushroom found growing on rotting hardwood may look like a straightforward species, but DNA research revealed something much more complicated: the tradi

Spore Sized: The Phoenix Oyster’s Hidden Chemistry Explained

This pale oyster mushroom thrives in warmer conditions while producing lovastatin analogs, ergothioneine and bioactive polysaccharides — and its enzyme secretome changes

Pleurotus pulmonarius: The Oyster Mushroom Built for Warm Climates

The classic oyster mushroom prefers familiar temperate conditions, but its close relative Pleurotus pulmonarius is built for warmer environments — and its biology goes we

Spore Sized: The Oyster Mushroom’s Hidden Life as a Predator

The everyday oyster mushroom has a second lifestyle that most people never see: it can chemically attack and immobilize microscopic nematodes. Pleurotus ostreatus combine

The Oyster Mushroom That Hunts and Kills Microscopic Animals

The oyster mushroom is one of the most familiar fungi on Earth — but behind its reputation as a cultivated food is a surprisingly sophisticated predator. Pleurotus ostrea

Spore Sized: Inside the Golden Oyster’s Most Unusual Molecules

What makes the Golden Oyster Mushroom chemically unusual? Pleurotus citrinopileatus combines its unmistakable golden-yellow appearance with high levels of ergothioneine,

Pleurotus citrinopileatus: The Chemistry of the Golden Oyster

The Golden Oyster Mushroom is famous for its brilliant yellow clusters, but its chemistry may be even more interesting than its appearance. Pleurotus citrinopileatus is a

Spore Sized: Inside the Chemistry of the Bleeding Fairy Helmet

What looks like a fragile little woodland mushroom is actually a remarkably interesting chemical system. Mycena haematopus, commonly known as the Bleeding Mycena or Bleed

Mycena haematopus: The Bleeding Mushroom Explained

A tiny woodland mushroom can produce a dark red to purplish liquid when its stem is damaged — and the chemistry behind that “bleeding” is far more unusual than its delica

Spore Sized: Why Does This Polypore Look Like a Trumpet?

Why does a polypore sometimes look nothing like the classic bracket fungus? In this focused episode, we explore Picipes tubaeformis, the Trumpet Polypore, a relatively un

Rare, Slender, and Almost Delicate — The Trumpet Polypore

Picipes tubaeformis, commonly called the Trumpet Polypore, breaks one of the most familiar images of a polypore: instead of forming a thick shelf or bracket, this uncommo