General personal resources list
A quick (ha) collection of helpful comments and resources so far, for personal reference:
via @andrewtree
conifers.org
Thomas Elpel's 'Botany in a Day'.
via @davidhljordan
http://www.amanitaceae.org/?Sections+of+Amanita
https://www.mushroomexpert.com
A Field Guide to the Mushrooms of Georgia (Bessette, Besette, and Hopping, 2023)
A Field Guide to Mushrooms of the Carolinas (Bessette, Bessette, and Hopping, 2018)
Gilled polypore
The gills on Trametes betulina are often (very) white and flappy. Daedaleopsis confragosa, when its underside is displaying gills, they're usually rusty-red to dark brown in color, often getting black, but are thin and brittle, and usually cracking already. Trametes betulina isn't all that morphologically variable, but it's always gilled. Daedaleopsis confragosa is sometimes gilled and sometimes (a) maze-like or (b) poroid. And, when Daedaleopsis confragosa does have a white underside, it usually stains some shade of red. Further, Daedaleopsis confragosa is often confused for Fuscoporia gilva and Trichaptum, as well as Trametes betulina.
Purplepore Bracket
Trichaptum abietinum and Trichaptum biforme are your toothed polypores. The former grows on dead conifer, while the latter grows on dead hardwood. The substrate in your picture is dead pine. Your 2nd picture shows teeth rather than pores, so Trametes gets ruled out entirely.
Dacrymyces chrysospermus is found only on conifer wood. One of the deciduous tree look-similars is Tremella mesenterica. (seconded by avlmike)
via @pynklynx
False Puffball
Touching these and observing the texture can be very helpful and a peek at the inside makes it more obvious.
With the photos available in this observation the biggest clue is the attachment point of the brown-ish blob to the wood. If we look very closely at the top left section (10-11 if it was a clock) of the blob we can see kind of a crusty edge suggesting this mass is not growing directly from the wood like a fungus and instead it is merely stuck to the bark surface like a slime mold
via @janetwright
http://flora.huh.harvard.edu/FloraData/001/WebFiles/fna27/FNA27-1-Morphology.htm
Sue Alix Williams' Ecological Guide to the Mosses and Common Liverworts of the Northeast.
Note on Smilax glauca.: Pale underside, edges very slightly turned under, pinkish veins & petiole, bluish color.
via @txwoofus
https://gallformers.org/gall/1492
via @comradejon
Lichens of North America by Brodo/Sharnoff/Sharnoff
