So, today Highland Park is being pummeled with thundershowers, thank the powers that be!
We haven’t had enough rain in weeks (to the point that when Nayla and I drove past the last weekly Sunday soccer game in Johnson Park that we couldn’t see the players due to the amount of dust in the air), and today it looks like we’re going to get about 1/2 to 3/4ths of an inch.
What does this mean for us? Tomorrow may be a Mushroom Holiday!
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.
A beautiful lot of puffballs with brown mottling on their surface. I’m 99.9% sure that they’re Calvatia cyanthiformis, but they were all too fresh to get any spores out of them.
…and at this point I’ll never know. They were delicious. 🙂
A beautiful assortment of Lycoperdon. I’ll be buggered if I can figure out which species, though. Because the spines are not circular and the points of them tend to stick together in clusters of three or four they’re probably either Lycoperdon pulcherrimum or young Lycoperdon echinatum.
UPDATE: They are Vascellum curtisii (aka. Lycoperdon curtisii).
Small puffballs.
More info when I have the time.
