Continuing the topic of weird mushrooms I've found recently, some for the first time.
Starting with cauliflower fungus. I've seen it for the first time four years ago when I was in the same area. The one back then was pretty firm and stiff, the specimen I've found this time was more tender. It might be due to weather. Previously it was hot and dry for prolonged time, this time it was cool and wet (in fact it was even raining at the time). Looks like it is like a natural sponge - hard when dry, soft when wet. It even looks like one. That kind of mushroom is edible, it even shows on the pictures :o)
Next is a cup. At first I thought it was sort of jelly ear, just growing from the ground, but I later identified it as kind of Peziza. Most likely edible but probably devoid of taste. I've seen similar mushrooms elsewhere (including mentioned jelly ear), although of slightly different colors.
It was raining for over an hour, I was already wet, the phone started to get wet as well. I wanted to get back to the car soon and forcing use of flash didn't even cross my mind. As a result most of the pictures of this and following mushroom were no good at all :o(
The following one I've never seen before. It was growing just couple of meters away from the above one. Black trumpet, another edible mushroom. My first impression was as if it was a brown calla lily blooming directly from the ground.
All the above mushrooms I've found on the sides of Wąwóz Piekiełko in Karkonosze. The last one I've spotted when I went to less visited area of Mokrznia Forest near my garden while foraging for mushrooms. I failed to identify it, the fungi identification app directs me to Peziza but it is clearly not cup or ear shaped, but rather a cornet made of rolled sheet of a mushroom. When I approached it, before I even touched it, it released a fume of spores, like those photosensoric air fresheners. Only first photo shows a faint remains of that fume. I tried to film the spore release, but it didn't repeat the process even after I've pulled it out of grass. It was firm, like a cartilage. It retained its shape even after couple of days (the third time I've visited the place it was gone, as if something ate it, but I've found another one nearby - on last photo).
