Mycology

What you see here is the mushroom, basically the gonads of the organism (technically the “fruiting body”, something that is there to spread the spores). The bulk of the fungus is inside the dead tree, putting out digestive juices and eating it.

There’s no real harm to it to take it out. Or to use a knife and take a piece of it. It’s common practice to use porous bags to carry them so you’re helping it spread the spores around as you’re foraging.

It had broken off of that log before we found it. It was all dried out and was surprisingly light. I would not normally disturb something this extraordinary, but it seemed harmless given the circumstances.