What that wood was is the biggest question in my mind about this collection. I clearly remember thinking it was redwood at the time I looked at it and I’ve been around redwoods all my life. However, the fact that it was in a stream bed makes me wonder if it couldn’t have somehow been some sort of maple which would be typical of A. cepistipes. I would certainly look at it a whole lot closer if I were to see this again.

Was the wood they were growing on dead? Living in redwood country myself (Humboldt county, CA), it’s very unusual to find fungi growing on redwood of any kind, though I do sometimes find Artist’s Conk on dead trunks.

Cap light brown with dark scales on the disc only. Margin striate and lacking scales. Stipe clavate with a thin, cobweb annulus. Habit: fruiting in clusters of 2 or 3.