Wednesday, October 25, 2023

An Explosion of Fungi

The fall rains have arrived. On a very recent field venture I came across an explosion of the fungal world exposing itself. I know very little about fungi and mushrooms. My mushroom adventures have been limited to a occasional picking of chanterelles and another type that leads to enhanced neuron activity.

The first mushroom I saw was few scattered large white mushrooms pushing up through the moss.  


After that is was one species after another. With no guide book and limited past identification efforts, I simply enjoyed the remarkable variety of this ephemeral explosion of wonders in the forest ecosystem briefly revealing themselves. Perhaps I will take a run at trying to id some from the pictures for future reference. 

















1 comment:

  1. The first pic is a russula brevipes. It's technically edible, but has almost no flavor. However, it is sometimes infected with a second fungi, hypomyces lactifluorum, which will warp the mushroom into an irregular shape and change the color to a bright reddish-orange. The hypomyces smells and tastes somewhat like seafood, and that combined with the color is why these mutated russulas are known as lobster mushrooms.

    If you're looking for a good, succinct field guide or two for the PNW, "All the Rain Promises" and "The Savory Wild Mushroom" are an excellent combination.

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