August Mushrooms

We’re nearing the end of our yellow / red / orange mushroom phase and going into the purple phase, so I thought I’d get one more photo of what I think might be butter wax caps (Hygrocybe ceracea.) They are one of the most photogenic of all mushrooms, in my opinion. Those that I find almost always grow in groups. The tip of the oak leaf on the left gives a sense of scale.

The word “lurid” came to mind when I saw these purple cort mushrooms (Cortinarius iodeoides.) It means “very vivid in color, especially so as to create an unpleasantly harsh or unnatural effect,” but the color is not at all unnatural, so I might need to find another descriptor. Their caps are quite slimy when they are young, so they always look wet.  They will lighten in color as they age.

Is this a stinkhorn mushroom or another species whose cap hasn’t opened yet? The only way to find out was to watch it but since I live three quarters of an hour from where it grew, I wasn’t able to. Another one for the mystery folder.

To see small things you need to re-train your eyes. (And your mind, somewhat)  Jelly babies (Leotia lubrica) are what led me down that path years ago. One day I sat down on a stone to rest and looked down, and there they were. I was surprised by how tiny they were, but they helped me see that forests are full of things just as small and sometimes many times smaller. You need to be ready (and able) to flatten yourself out on the forest floor to get good photos of jelly babies.

Crown coral fungi come in many colors, but I usually find the tan / white varieties. The examples in this photo had a touch of orange, which I was happy to see. The way to tell if you have a crown coral fungus is by the tips of the branches, which in crown coral look like tiny crowns rather than blunt or rounded. They grow on dead wood but if that wood is buried they can appear to be growing in soil. Their peak season seems to be July through August here.

These are another coral fungus called spindle corals (Ramariopsis laeticolor.) The taller ones might reach an inch and a half high and their diameter is close to a piece of cooked spaghetti.  They have the odd habit of growing in the packed earth of trails so I often find that they have been stepped on and broken.

Velvet stalked fairy fan mushrooms (spathularia velutipes) look more like leaves than mushrooms to me, but they are a form of spatulate mushroom that get their name from their resemblance to a spatula. They grow on conifer logs or in conifer debris on the forest floor.  These examples grew in the packed earth beside a trail. This was the first time I’ve noticed them.

What I think are orange chanterelle wax cap mushrooms (Hygrocybe cantharallus) grew along the side of a mossy log. Three or four of these tiny mushrooms could hide behind a pea but they always grow in clusters so they’re relatively easy to see. It always seems to be dark where I find them so I have to use a flash. Orange and yellow mushrooms seem to hold their color fairly well under a flash but the stems and gills have lightened slightly on some of these, so I probably should have used an L.E.D.

Wood ear fungi (Auricularia auricular) are almost ear size and are hard to find in this area. These rubbery fungi grow on rotting wood and are used in hot and sour soup in China. Science has shown that they can decrease blood cholesterol levels, and it is thought that they may be part of the reason that the Chinese exhibit such a low incidence of heart disease. They don’t look very appetizing to me, but if they were hidden in a soup or maybe spaghetti sauce I might be able to get them down.

Yellow patches (Amanita flavoconia) gets its name from the yellow bits of the universal veil on its orange cap. The universal veil is made of tissue and completely covers the young mushroom. As the mushroom grows it eventually breaks through the membranous veil and pieces of it are left behind on the cap. Rain can wash them off, and that is most likely why this example has so few of them.  This mushroom is in the amanita family, which contains some of the most toxic mushrooms known. I know I’ve said it a hundred times but it bears repeating: never eat any mushroom that you aren’t 100% sure is safe.

Oyster mushrooms are pure white and seem to always grow in overlapping clusters like those in the photo. The one standing straight up is unusual; oyster mushrooms have off center stems that usually grow out of the side of the log and are hidden by the cap.

Mushrooms are often eaten by tiny worms called nematodes that live on plant and fungal tissue, but not  oyster mushrooms. Scientists discovered in 1986 that oyster mushrooms “exude extracellular toxins that stun {nematode] worms, whereupon the mycelium invades its body through its orifices.” What this means is that oyster mushrooms are actually carnivorous. They also consume bacteria (Pseudomonas and Agrobacterium) in order to get nitrogen and protein.

Black chanterelles (Craterellus cornucopioides) are also called deep purple horn of plenty mushrooms and are rare enough in this area to only grow in one spot that I know of. When I first found these last year I learned that they are considered a great delicacy by mushroom hunters, but are also rare. Because of their color mushroom hunters complain that they’re very hard to see but for a change I think colorblindness serves me well, because I can see them without any difficulty. I’ve read that colorblind people can “see through” camouflage and I’m beginning to wonder if it might not be true.

By far the biggest mushroom that I’ve ever seen is Berkeley’s polypore (Bondarzewia berkeleyi.) I put a quarter above and to the right of the center of this one so you could get an idea of how big this monster was. It must have been 2 feet across at its widest point. This mushroom grows at the base of hardwoods in the east and in the west a similar example, Bondarzewia montana, grows at the base of conifers. The first time I saw Berkeley’s polypore I misidentified it as chicken of the woods (Laetiporus sulphureus.)

 

 The world of mushrooms is full of fascinating facts but also stunning beauty, and that’s why I never ignore even the broken ones. You never know what you’ll see.

Overnight, very
Whitely, discreetly,
Very quietly

Our toes, our noses
Take hold on the loam,
Acquire the air.

Nobody sees us,
Stops us, betrays us;
The small grains make room.

Soft fists insist on
Heaving the needles,
The leafy bedding,

Even the paving.
Our hammers, our rams,
Earless and eyeless,

Perfectly voiceless,
Widen the crannies,
Shoulder through holes. We

Diet on water,
On crumbs of shadow,
Bland-mannered, asking

Little or nothing.
So many of us!
So many of us!

We are shelves, we are
Tables, we are meek,
We are edible,

Nudgers and shovers
In spite of ourselves.
Our kind multiplies:

We shall by morning
Inherit the earth.
Our foot’s in the door.

~Sylvia Plath,
Mushrooms

Thanks for coming by.

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