Last week I spotted a bit of yellow something growing on a small—very small—stump of a Douglas fir. I had to go back to the spot today to check it out. I was keeping my fingers crossed that it might be a Phaeolus schweinitzii. My hopes were buoyed up when I saw how much it’s grown and changed since I first saw it.

I do believe this is a young dyer’s polypore. I’ve never seen one appear this early in the year, but we’ve had an exceptionally cool, wet spring (which adds to my firm belief that this is going to be a fabulous mushroom year!). Nor have I ever seen one on such a small stump—I usually find them on the massive, moss-covered stumps left over from the logging that was done here a hundred years ago. So I could be wrong . . . updates to follow as this little fungus grows.