Morel, winter mushroom, scarlet cup, and turkey tail fungi, circa 1970

About this postcard

Four views of fungi: a cluster of morels among ferns and woodland greenery, a stack of orange-brown winter mushrooms on a tree trunk with one cap turned to show pale gills, a scarlet cup fungus with a vivid red interior, and overlapping blue-grey and brown turkey tail brackets. The caption identifies the panels as morel, winter mushroom, scarlet cup, and turkey tail, one of the polyporus fungi. It also notes the old view that fungi were primitive plants because they lack flowers and reproduce by spores, and that some are edible, some poisonous, and some merely tasteless. Morels are spring woodland mushrooms, winter mushrooms fruit in cold weather, scarlet cups appear in leaf litter, and turkey tail is a common polypore with zoned caps.