Oodles of Agaricus campestris (brown-capped variety) now all in the dehydrator.
It was also so moist outside that some of them had drops of “blood” on their gills (that’s something I’ve only read about it in field guides about them before) which were also a beautiful bright-pink to chocolate. As such, you’ll notice some pink “blood stains” on the caps where I stacked the mushrooms on top of eachother.
We pulled in enough Marasmius oreades caps to thread two feet of string. They are now happily drying infront of our heater.
I was surprised to bring in so many mushrooms at this time in the season. The weather has been whacky, so I’ll blame that. Below are some pictures of the two baskets that my wife and I brought in. I only wish that there was better light to take the photographs in as most of them came out grainy.
I’ll be going through each type of mushroom we came across in separate entries.
-Steve
We haven’t had rain in too long, so when I had a whopper of a headache on Wednesday night, I was a little excited. Sinus headaches for me have always been followed by changes in the weather, but more specifically, rain, so sure enough on Thursday it started to drizzle, and on Friday it turned into a full-blown downpour. The next day afterwards, my wife and I went out mushrooming and pulled in a good-sized catch. Not as large as we had hoped, but a relatively large for how late in the season it’s getting.
Yesterday, we brought in the above: 15 Agaricus campestris and two Lycoperdon (either L. pulcherrimum or L. echinatum, I can never really tell not that it really matters to me). I popped these into the fridge overnight to outline that change of gill color that I had mentioned before. Within a few hours after they are picked, the characteristic bright-pink of the gills fades to a pallid gray:
This is completely normal, but a really good reason to keep a mushroom journal with photos. In the past, I’ve thrown out entire clutches of campestris because I was not aware of this quirk and feared misidentification (as if I’m not 100% confident that a mushroom is edible, I toss it: “When in doubt, throw it out!”).
Another thing that I loved about this batch of campestris was that most of them were of the brown-capped variety:
Just like Agaricus bisporus, the mushrooms you get in the supermarket, have “white” (button) and “brown” (portobello, crimini) varieties, so to A. campestris. I love their color.
The next day (today) we went out again only to find slim pickings, albeit with a bit more variety:
One mature Agaricus campestris, two Marasmius oreades, one Lycoperdon, and one Calvatia (probably C. cyanthiformis).
I’ll post more soon.
Peace,
-Steve
My wife and I took an awesome walk today all the way from Highland Park, through Johnson Park, across the Rt 18 bridge and into New Brunswick for a late brunch at the Au Bon Pain (quite a treat for our family, as we tend not to eat out) and then caught the bus back. During the walk through Johnson Park, however, we came across three amazing sites for two different kinds of whacky mushroom.
First Nayla noticed simply popping up from out of the ground (which we later found was actually from decaying roots) a large patch of Ganoderma lucidum more commonly known as Reishi or Ling Zhi, which are very prominent in traditional Chinese medicine.
Next we came across a huge old stump with a cluster of Laetiporus sulphureus, or Chicken of the Woods. If we had only thought to bring something to store anything we would have found in, we could have made three meals out of this cluster. But it might have been for the best, as it looked as if someone had grazed it (be they woodland creatures or small children). I’m going to have to remember to drop by there again and grab some to make some spawn to inoculate a cord of wood that my parents-in-law don’t know what to do with.
Lastly, we came across another set of Reishi… Only these had taken over an entire tree (which was very well dead). About a hundred caps came out of it like a spiral staircase, with one at the very very top (about 20 feet up) that was, and I kid you not, about the size of a soccer ball. Once again, if I had some way to store it, I would have found a way to climb the tree. 🙂
Actually looking closer at the picture I snapped of the one at the very top, it might not be a Reishi at all. The pores look a bit dangley and toothy and I could not see whether or not the top was “lacquered,” so this crowning piece might be a young Hericium erinaceus or Lion’s Mane. I may never know.
Peace,
-Steve
Looks like very few shrooms actually popped up today, despite the rain. 🙁 No matter.
Today I’m publically posting the Beta to the Mushroom Database and I’m now starting to enlist volunteers to help populate it!
It can be found at: http://steve.rogueleaf.com/mushroom
It currently only has two mushrooms in it (Agaricus campestris and Marasmius oreades), but it’s a start. 🙂
Peace,
-Steve
Wow… With always coming across False Parasol (Chlorophyllum molybdites) after False Parasol with their familiar green spore print, I never thought I’d actually find a real Parasol. Sure enough, though, when my wife and I were taking a walk with her parents (and of course, Eli was in tow) on Labor Day, she pointed out some mushrooms that were growing under a random conifer in a neighbor’s yard, so I grabbed one and took it back with us. It had been nearly two weeks since we had a good rain, so finding new mushrooms was rather rare in the parched weather.
At first I thought, “Yeah, it’s a False Parasol” but then I figured, “What the heck? Let’s take it back and print it.” When I snapped off the cap from the stem I was a bit surprised at the orange bruising (which C. molybdites does not do), and was absolutely thrilled when the print came back white.
I’d found a Chlorophyllum rhacodes: The Shaggy Parasol Mushroom. A choice edible in Europe (with some exceptions due to allergic reactions).
Unfortunately at the point of my discovery, it was too old to eat, but hey! I’ve got spores now!
I’ll be putting together an article together about it soon in my Fungi section.
Being a code monkey of sorts I have decided to put together something that anyone interested in mushrooms (from complete layman up to professional mycologist) could use: An easy to use mushroom identification database.
My inspiration stemmed from many hours of looking through paper mushroom identification keys that read like crappy choose-your-own-adventure novels (if x, go to page N, if y go to page M). In the digital age, there has to be an easier way to do things, so putting my Library and Information Science skills to work, I’m putting together both an intuitive database to store mushroom identification information along with an intuitive, human-useable interface to retrieve it.
Here’s a screenshot of the concept. This is very far from what the finished product will look like, but it will give you an idea at where I’m going. Instead of going through a key, one simply checks off what features the mushroom they have has one by one (with illustrations to help), and the database compares that combination of features to all of the mushrooms it has on file, and returns them in order of relevance (i.e. highest number of matches first).
The example above only has a handful of characteristics in it, and only one mushroom on file (Agaricus campestris). Once I have in a decent number of characteristics (several hundred it seems like it will be) I’ll make the hierarchical list expandable, so one can jump into whatever section they need more freely, as well as put in ways to remove fields that really can’t truly be check-off searched (like common names, etc).
I’ll post more as I come up with it.
Peace,
-Steve
When I was over at my grandparents’ house with my wife, daughter, and sister for dinner (which is a weekly tradition) there was this gorgeous mushroom growing in the front lawn covered with midges. I unfortunately did not have my camera with me, but it was one of the most beautiful specimens of Toxic Scaly Agaricus or Agaricus praeclaresquamosus (wow.. that’s a mouthful) that I’ve ever seen.
Truly a look-but-don’t-eat sorta mushroom. Beautiful sooty-black scales, pink gills, a large intact ring with scales on the underside, and a base that stained bright daisy-yellow when cut. The midge flies crawling over it were due to its somewhat unpleasant smell, but then again it’s an easy way for the mushroom to spread spores.
The next time one blossoms there, I’ll be sure to take some pictures. 🙂
UPDATE: After doing s bit more reading, it turns out that this mushroom was probably Agaricus placomyces. The two are practically identical, but A. placomyces grows in the east (I’m on the East Coast) where A. praeclaresquamosus grows west of the Great Plains. Next time I’m able to grab a sample, I’ll be sure to take it home and confirm under a microscope (as well as take copious pictures).
Who would have thought? My wife showed me a really ugly mushroom growing on the decayed remains of stump roots about a month back, but I paid it no mind. Today, however, I came across some pictures on the internet that made me doublethink, go back to the patch she found it at, and grab some more.
Now I’m 95% certain that I have in my possession a Ganoderma lucidum, the Reishi mushroom. The Reishi is used all over the place in traditional Chinese medicine. I’ll post more about this in an article on it in my Fungi section soon.
