Sunday, September 29, 2013

Rosy Red Russula and Fresh Orange Lobster Mushrooms

I walked for almost 3 hours today, checking on some mushrooms I saw last week and exploring new areas. Viewed today:
  • Rosy Russula
  • Short Stemmed Russula
  • Cascade Russula
  • Lobster
  • Fircone Cap
  • Glistening Inkcap
  • Some kind of Stropharia
  • Sulphur Tuft
  • Western Painted Suillus
  • Golden Chanterelle
  • Tootled Jelly Fungus
  • Pear-shaped Puffball

Here is a video of some of the Rosy Russulas.
Often I see these plentiful (and inedible) mushrooms with a flat brown/burgundy colour on top, but the rains have produced these cherry red effects and lots of shinny slime on top. Like candied applies strewn across the ground.

I checked on a mushroom I saw last week which I think is Sulphur Tuft. Here is a side by side comparison with last weeks photo and todays:
These are growing at the base of an old alder tree which sported Oyster Mushrooms two summers ago and fell down over the winter. Growing as it is on this deciduous log, rules out a lot of similar mushrooms, including Hypholoma capnoides, which also has grey gills, which these do not have.

There were lots of LBMs and several patches of what I think is Coprinellus micaceus or Glistening Inkcap.


Further down the trail I checked in an area where I found Cauliflower Mushrooms in previous years, after seeing Mike Orr's spectacular recent find: http://youtu.be/o972nq9ebDw I didn't find any Cauliflowers but found a whole bunch of  Pear-shaped Puffballs. I have not actually found any of these on my own before, only with Jessica Wolf who pointed them out in a forest in Cedar. They were really tiny so I didn't pick any, but will check back in a few days and see how they are coming along.

 Then, towards the end of the day I moved to another nearby forest and found two lovely specimens of Lobster Mushroom which I brought home and cleaned. These were alongside a flush of Cascade Russulas -- their probable victims.
Young Fresh Lobster Mushrooms

5 comments:

  1. Hey!
    Thanks for your blog! it's nice to see a personal mushroom resource for our area. We are currently in Powell River and new to identifying and picking mushrooms. I'll be checking back on your blog regularly.
    I really enjoyed your chart with your taste rating. great job:)
    -Erika

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  2. Thanks Erika, I appreciate the feedback. I've found a couple of mushrooms since posting that list but no new tastings yet. I'm still cautious to try new ones when there is some doubt. For example I have found what I think are alcohol inkys and glistening inkcaps, but I haven't done the careful analysis to make sure they aren't something else! But I love the research part to, at least half the fun. :)

    You might want to start a blog of your own. It is a fun way to keep track of what you saw when, and if enough of us start doing it, we can compare notes. Anyway, just an idea. Thanks for stopping by and commenting! Good hunting.

    Richard

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