So, my boyfriend has decided that we're going to do a lot more hiking this year, so to make things a little more exciting I've decided to start up mycology as a hobby. I've always loved to stop on trails and photograph any mushrooms I find (and often happily rant about how cute/awesome/mindboggling they are) I'm starting to figure out the lingo and learned how to make a spore print to help narrow down the choices for identification. Still have a long way to go. So! I was wondering if there's anyone else here who has an interest in mushrooms/funghi, or has some wonderful photos they'd be willing to share! Any tips, tricks, and field guide suggestions would be awesome too.
It's Morel season here in Michigan. I have gone out looking to varying degrees for the last several years, had some great luck and some total busts. My goal this year is to make a great big pizza with fresh morels. I was surprised a few years ago to find "false morels" they look almost exactly the same, difference being the stem, oh and can be poisonous! nature can be a crazy asshole!
Oh my! I have never seen morels in real life, but I've been reading about them and the false morel. Seems that a lot of mushrooms look similar and mistakes about edibility can be made easily... I actually have never had mushrooms before (I know, it's practically sacrilegious) but I'm tempted to try them if I find something out in the woods. On a side note, some little shit decided to start a fire in my town's park and after 60 firefighters fought the flames for hours, 5 acres were torched to the ground. I was really looking forward to going hunting there, but guess that will have to wait... Though maybe some fungal activity will result from the decaying burnt plant matter.
Made my first ID, I think... I've managed to whittle it down to Coprinellus bisporus based on the fact that it didn't have the glistening little granules of Coprinellus micaceus... but hey, maybe they rubbed off or something. Who knows. This really isn't as easy as I thought it'd be. EDIT: Nope, turns out these ARE coprinellus micaceus but the mica-like specks that are its namesake only seem to be evident in the early sprouts, they seem to either be rubbed/washed/fall off on the mature ones. Been observing them coming back in the area near our maple tree after every rainfall, it's pretty fun seeing them re-emerge.
Found some Lacrymararia lacrymabunda in my yard a week or so ago. Only had it ID'd by somebody on /r/shroomid today. (The ID websites I was using before just weren't giving me viable classifications... this seems to be a common problem with these ID websites. You check off "smooth cap" and they give you results of scaley caps, wtf? I have to get myself a good book off of Amazon one of these days.) They totally looked like weird hairy nipple-topped mushrooms.
Welp, looks like I'm starting a blog documenting mushrooms I've found. If you want to check it out, it's at http://ctmushrooms.blogspot.com/. (hope it's okay posting this, this isn't for any financial gain or anything.) Only have two entries up at the moment, Coprinellus micaceus and Panaeolus foenisecii.
I've been putting a lot of woodchips and rotting logs and things in my garden and I'm getting a lot more fungi that I'd never seen before, I need to start trying to identify them though, I really have no idea but some of them were bizarre looking. I think they do guided tours in the forests around here to identify different mushrooms so maybe I'll do that next year. I'm also trying to grow some Shitaki mushrooms with plugs in alder logs, I think they're maybe supposed to fruit this spring, I'll post some pics if it works!
lot of morels in the Minnesota/Wisconsin area. Quite a few other tastes as well. I'm not very trusting so I will usually only eat a couple of species that I have been taught by other live human beings. I usually watch them for a while first. But we did have a lot of variety here this year with all the rain.
