In the Woods...

Today, instead of other paper responsibilities, I took off for the woods to scout for fungi. The forests are absolutely soaked, and I haven't ever found so many different varieties during this time of year. I was hoping to find Craterellus cornucopiodes, a black chantrelle, and Boletus bicolor. Small success with the boletes, and indeed there were a few early bicolors.

Imagine a fat mushroom shape with a smallish cap; the stem is dull red as is the cap, and the pores underneath are bright yellow. It is beautiful, tasty, and not many people know about them. In my journal, the date of their appearance is late August, when the first flush is abundant. Into September, they become scarce, but then other boletes step up.

In the woods, there was evidence of someone before me, for a few stipes had been sliced with knife; an inedible Tylopilus may mimic an edible bolete until you turn the cap over and see what pores are underneath. Vas ist der bolete? Well, the mushrooms you generally purchase at the grocery have gills, the folds under the cap. Other mushrooms, the boletes, have pores like a sponge underneath. These are the ones I look for the most. Gilled mushrooms are good, but not as nutty, earthy, and elusive as the pored fungi.

I gathered other specimens for sketching as well, there were green, red, and yellow Russulas; faded pink Entolomas, and some others I have to key out. I left any Amanitas alone, I don't even want them in my basket, they are that poisonous. Let me tell you, a poisonous mushroom can grow right next to a good one, that was the case with a group of Death Angels fruiting near some white Russulas. The problem was that there has been so much rain, some of the identifying remnants of the vulva found on the Amanita's cap had been washed away, so to the uneducated eye, mushrooms is mushrooms.

I am going to play with my treasures and hopefully get some sketches completed. Then I am going to address the hangnail that I received from the college that I have already made a payment to, saying that they would like another $150 to re-register and they have no idea of how I was able to sign up for this course. Blah blah blah, meow, meow, meow.

It promises to be a cooler night. Sail away, me hearties, to regions unmapped and new.