My hiking friend knows a lot about lichens and she showed me lots of interesting things growing on and among the trees. I learned that all mushrooms are fungi but not all fungi are mushrooms. I also learned that they are neither plant nor animal but a bit of both (kind of).

“Fungi are eukaryotes, meaning that like plants and animals, their cells have a nucleus where DNA is stored. They are also heterotrophs, which means that they eat!” (holdenfg.org)

There are even some that are both lichen and fungus! I know! Mind blown.

I’m sure my friend would not describe them this way, but this is my take-away from what I learned. Here are my photographs with identifications from the Picture Mushroom Identificater app on my phone. The degree of certainty about accuracy varies quite a bit, so I am open to corrections.

Edit to add: Some changes in identification have been made in response to corrections.