The Fungus Amongus!
The morning and early afternoon were mostly cloudy today, as I hiked into Owl Hollow. Occassional rainshowers and a bark-worse-than-bite thunderstorm intertwined with bouts of occassional sunshine made photography a bit less simple than it should be On a few occassions, I found myself huddled under the dense bough of a hemlock tree to keep myself from getting wet. And, of course now that I’ve given up and made my way home, the sun is shining!
I’m pleased with the way summer has gone thus far. The wetness of spring has carried over into July, resulting in an explosion of fungal life on the forest floor of Owl Hollow. It’d been awhile since I mingled around down there, so I took the Nikon D60 out and tried to see if the wetness had influenced any beauties to pop from the ground, or some dead log. I was not dissapointed in the least.
From golden yellows and bright reds to fiery oranges and deep purples I managed to get snapshots of a wide assortment of mushroom species. Russulas were definitely dominating over all other species, a fact we can thank the eastern hemlocks for. Every few yards it seemed some variety of russula would be bursting from the hemlock needles on the forest floor.
Some russulas have red caps and white stems, others have red with rosy stems, and others have green or brown caps. It just depends on the species. Some russulas are said to be edible, but most that I find are insect infested or riddled with chipmunk bites. A few are inedible, to poisonous, so I just avoid picking russulas for the table altogether.
Here are some mushroom shots I made during todays jaunt. Enjoy.
Damn you take great pictures!! I hope joining the Autobon Society will give you plenty of help getting some of your art going too Michael. Between that and your nature photography you should be famous!
*can I have your autograph before that happens?* LOL
Hello there,
I just stumbled across your blog; nice photos. I’m a PhD student studying mycology and the molecular evolution of fungi in Massachusetts and have just put up some shots from a foray yesterday that you might enjoy.
I sometimes eat russulas, and just tried Russula compacta for the first time about four hours ago. Eh, not great, but not terrible.
Those little yellow mushrooms with the decurrent gills are probably a Hygrocybe, likely H. miniata. The purple ones would likely have brown spores if you took a print; I’m betting they’re some species under Cortinarius, though there are so many purple corts it’s hard to tell them apart without microscopic examination most of the time. The little brown stain of a ring on the upper stipe is a dead giveaway, though.
That varnished-looking polypore is probably something close to Ganoderma lucidum. If it was on a hardwood, likely G. lucidum, or G tsugae is growing on hemlock wood. My dissertation research is on polyporoids and the beetles that depend on them and the G. lucidum complex is a personal favorite as are the forked fungus beetles that frequently inhabit them.
That little Amanita reminds me of yellow-patches, A. flavoconia, which is very common at this time of year. It looks like the annulus is yellow, as is the stipe. If the volva is yellow and crumbly, it’s almost certainly yellow patches.
Your first red-capped russula is probably R. emetica. I saw hundreds of them yesterday on Wachusett Mountain, along with a bunch of green R. variata.
Finally, the white-capped little mushrooms with the wiry stipes are undoubtedly Mycena, but I’m not too up on those.
Anyhow, I always enjoy running across blogs by others with an interest in fungi and seeing photos of what’s growing around the world at any given time. Nice to have found yours.