Diario de merkertgrace

A quick (ha) collection of helpful comments and resources so far, for personal reference:

via @andrewtree
conifers.org
Thomas Elpel's 'Botany in a Day'.

via @davidhljordan
http://www.amanitaceae.org/?Sections+of+Amanita
https://www.mushroomexpert.com
A Field Guide to the Mushrooms of Georgia (Bessette, Besette, and Hopping, 2023)
A Field Guide to Mushrooms of the Carolinas (Bessette, Bessette, and Hopping, 2018)

Gilled polypore
The gills on Trametes betulina are often (very) white and flappy. Daedaleopsis confragosa, when its underside is displaying gills, they're usually rusty-red to dark brown in color, often getting black, but are thin and brittle, and usually cracking already. Trametes betulina isn't all that morphologically variable, but it's always gilled. Daedaleopsis confragosa is sometimes gilled and sometimes (a) maze-like or (b) poroid. And, when Daedaleopsis confragosa does have a white underside, it usually stains some shade of red. Further, Daedaleopsis confragosa is often confused for Fuscoporia gilva and Trichaptum, as well as Trametes betulina.

Purplepore Bracket
Trichaptum abietinum and Trichaptum biforme are your toothed polypores. The former grows on dead conifer, while the latter grows on dead hardwood. The substrate in your picture is dead pine. Your 2nd picture shows teeth rather than pores, so Trametes gets ruled out entirely.

Dacrymyces chrysospermus is found only on conifer wood. One of the deciduous tree look-similars is Tremella mesenterica. (seconded by avlmike)

via @pynklynx
False Puffball
Touching these and observing the texture can be very helpful and a peek at the inside makes it more obvious.
With the photos available in this observation the biggest clue is the attachment point of the brown-ish blob to the wood. If we look very closely at the top left section (10-11 if it was a clock) of the blob we can see kind of a crusty edge suggesting this mass is not growing directly from the wood like a fungus and instead it is merely stuck to the bark surface like a slime mold

via @janetwright
http://flora.huh.harvard.edu/FloraData/001/WebFiles/fna27/FNA27-1-Morphology.htm
Sue Alix Williams' Ecological Guide to the Mosses and Common Liverworts of the Northeast.
Note on Smilax glauca.: Pale underside, edges very slightly turned under, pinkish veins & petiole, bluish color.

via @txwoofus
https://gallformers.org/gall/1492

via @comradejon
Lichens of North America by Brodo/Sharnoff/Sharnoff

Did the boardwalk only. Boardwalk is high among the trees, it was really cool to see everything that is normally so far overhead. Absolute abundance of sunburst lichens and blister wart!! It was a delight to see something orange on almost every single tree.

Lots of really friendly people, helpful park rangers, clean bathrooms, ample parking. The boardwalk is handicap accessible for wheelchairs and strollers, but benches are pretty spaced out: will need to bring extra painkillers and salve next time. Trail is well maintained and well labelled. Area was free of litter. Many trails available, will have to go earlier in the day next time. Ended up going very quickly through the last 0.5 miles or so due to the light fading. Park ranger said it was okay to go off the trail a short distance, but to not get lost or stuck in the mud. Did get stuck in the mud. Twice. Need to invest in some taller waterproof boots.

Best combination for proper images thus far seems to be Shutter priority, an aperture of roughly 1/40-1/60, manual white balance, and manual iso control: kept mainly around 100-400, with exceptions for the undersides of certain lichens and mushrooms. Shutter priority seems to make a big difference in helping moderate the hand shake issue. Removed lens cap entirely. Exhausted one full set of batteries, will have to charge: have not reached anywhere near the limit on the SD card.

4.5 hours hiked, trail is labeled as 2.6 miles. 625 pictures taken, 429 saved after culling due to quality concerns or duplicate photos. Total of 109 observations posted