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Ask your average mycophobic neighbor, "What color are gills?" The probable answer: pink. As urban mycophiles who spend more time mushroom hunting than fishing, we know that gills are less often pink and mostly gray, green, brown, black, or some combination of those colors.

The deer mushroom is an interesting find for its pink gills and spores. (Note that younger specimens have whitish gills. To make a spore print, place a mature cap gill-side down on white paper overnight.) It's also a graceful wood-inhabiting mushroom that some people like to eat. We've found it in the city on both stumps and wood chips.