Moving at a Snail's Pace

          Mushrooms, especially many of the edibles, are relatively scarce during this traditionally dry part of the early summer.  Morel season has come and gone, and for now we must wait patiently for the mid-summer rains to usher in a new wave of mushrooms that include some of the most delicious edibles around.  Perhaps this current week (June 24th-30th) will provide enough rain to bring forth chicken-of-the-woods (Laetiporus sulphureus), chanterelles (Cantharellus cibarius), and black trumpets (Craterellus cornucopioides).  

Nevertheless, the woods were not without their usual flurry of activity and growth.  Regardless of whether one find what he or she is looking for, any foray into the woods is sure to promise some unexpected and highly interesting sights and sounds.  On this particular walk I was lucky enough to observe a male Downy Woodpecker (Picoides pubescens) attempting to court a female in a wonderful dance of movement and singing taking place in the canopy of our rich deciduous forest.

The following are some of the more interesting sights from another well-spent day in the woods. 

The roving eyes of a common land snail.

Only a week or two before black raspberries (Rubus occidentalis) come into season!  If you've never tried a black raspberry, you should...they're absolutely delicious.  The one pictured is not quite ripe, wait until they are a purplish black color before harvesting.

Purple-flowering raspberry (Rubus odoratus) in full flower.  This plant, also known as Thimbleberry, produces a delicious berry that falls apart too easily to make it commercially viable.  The berries have a slightly acidic twang that balances out the sweetness and make this a fruit certainly worth finding.  You can find this species along most forested roadsides and in mixed-wood forests and clearings.

The appearance of this (most likely) False Turkey Tail (Stereum ostrea) seems practically otherworldly.

Another probable False Turkey Tail, this species can range in color from brown, red, or orange, to buff and green.  The False Turkey Tail lacks a pore surface and thus has a smooth underside, making this a "crust fungus" rather than a "polypore".

I noticed a number of these multiple trunked Red Oaks (Quercus rubra) along one section of the trail.  After logging or fire events hardwood trees often send young shoots up from the original stump, as demonstrated above.

This is a highly interesting plant!  Monotropa uniflora goes by multiple names, including Ghost Plant, Indian Pipe, and Corpse Plant.  Unlike most plants on this planet, the Ghost Plant is white and does not contain chlorophyll.  This means that it does not practice photosynthesis and thus does gather its energy directly from the sun.  The Ghost Plant is parasitic, more specifically it is a myco-heterotroph.  This means that the plant is associated with certain mycorrhizal  fungi whose partnership with the root systems of trees means that the fungus, and by extension the Ghost Plant, harness their energy from their partner trees.  Interesting and beautiful.

I find snails to be fascinating. 

Primordial goo or the stagnant water in a beaver dam?  

Artist's Conk (Ganoderma applanatum)

Milkweed (Asclepias sp.), a preferred food for monarch butterflies,  beginning to flower.  

Another day, another bouquet.

Summertime, when the living is easy.

*A note to viewers of this blog.  I highly recommend clicking on the images to see their larger and better-quality versions.  Enjoy!*

Fine Vermont weather and wonderful company doesn't always make for successful mushroom foraging.  Will Cox and Josh Petter, pictured above, scan the landscape for signs of mycological mystery.

Our only fungal find of the day (found by Will).  The thoroughly unexciting and slug-devoured Megacollybia platyphylla.  This was the mushroom we found fruiting in abundance during out last foray (see previous post).   

A stunning Larger Blue Flag Iris (Iris versicolor) growing wild in the woods.

The small blue and yellow flowers of the True Forget-me-not (Myotis scorpioides).

Amid the leaf litter can be seen the strikingly petite flowers of Partridgeberry (Mitchella repens).

The invasive but captivating Orange Hawkweed (Hieracium aurantiacum), also called Devil's Paintbrush.   Native to the alpine regions of central and southern Europe.

The makings to a nice early summer bouquet.

Should your options for safe transport in a vehicle be limited, I suggest wetting some paper towel, wrapping it around the lower half of the bouquet, and placing the bouquet gently in a hiking boot.

I take these mushrooms, fruiting out of our compost, to be a positive indicator of our compost's health!

Same mushrooms, different angle.

Clouds can make for a pretty sunset but they can also prevent you from seeing Venus pass over the Sun.  Oh well, there's always next time.

Take A Walk On The Wild Side

Josh & Max displaying their finds!

Hello!  After a day or two of impressive thunderstorms and some fairly substantial rain, a rag-tag team of nature enthusiasts headed to the woods to see what could be found.  Our team consisted of Max, a recent graduate and forestry major; Josh, my usual mushroom hunting cohort; and myself.  We set out in hopes of finding morels but just like the many other times before, we would emerge from the woods with a totally different--but still exciting--fungal find.

The area we had chosen to search seemed to display some of the most ideal traits for finding the illusive morel.  Our spot contained wet, low-lying ground; large ashes (Fraxinus sp.), dead and dying elms (Ulmus americana), as well as plenty of edge habitat (i.e. the area where a field meets a forest).  From the reading I have done, this area seemed to be a prime choice for hunting morels.

As we ventured into the woods, we soon came upon a cluster of beautiful orange mushrooms growing out of the bark of a dead, lying hardwood.  

The beautiful orange mycena (Mycena leaiana) growing on the deadwood of a hardwood.

We removed some of the old bark to get a better understanding of the way in which this species grew.  We discovered that the orange mycena (Mycena leaiana) grows in 'cespitose' (tight or dense) clusters and that the bright orange color is a result of a pigment in the mushroom that will, if rubbed, stain one's skin an electric yellow.  Orange mycena is not poisonous but is considered to small to eat (Arora 1979, Miller 2006).

A cespitose cluster of orange mycena.  Note that that white fringe near the bottom of the stems is the mycelium.

Another cluster of orange mycena growing out of a standing dead hardwood.

Our early discovery of the orange mycena seemed to be a good sign of things to come, as if the forest was just waiting for us to find what the rains and warm weather had coaxed out of the ground (or trees for that matter).  Crossing a small stream we found a large patch of flowering wild ginger (Asarum canadense).  Ginger has been touted for many of its edible and medicinal qualities.  Wild ginger (the root of the plant) contains the anti tumor compound aristolochic acid and was used by Native Americans to treat many different ailments.  Wild ginger, like many other medicinal or edible native plants, has been over-harvested in many areas, so we refrained from collecting any, even if it is a superb addition to an iced chaga tea.

The flower of a wild ginger plant (Asarum canadense).

Upon reaching the conclusion that further fungi could be found in a different part of the woods, we hiked away from the stream bank and into the shaded, cool confines of an eastern hemlock (Tsuga canadensis) stand.  If one were to desire finding an amazing medicinal mushroom, hemlock stands are an excellent place to look during the spring and early summer.  Here, under the dense coniferous canopy of hemlocks and eastern white pines (Pinus strobus), can be found the reishi mushroom.  There are two different species of reishi, one that grows on hardwoods (Ganoderma lucidum) and one that grows on conifers (Ganoderma tsugae); but for field identification purposes, the two are practically identical.

The elegant reishi mushroom (Ganoderma tsugae).

Reishi, also known as the Lingzhi mushroom, has been used as a medicinal mushroom in traditional Chinese medicine for over 2,000 years, making it one of the longest-used medicinal mushrooms around.  According to David Arora, "Ling Chih" translates to "marvelous herb" or "mushroom of immortality".  Reishi has been depicted in many classical Oriental works of art and has been found to contain significant anti tumor, immune-enhancing, and cholesterol-reducing properties.  The mushroom is often dried, sliced thinly, boiled, and drank as a bitter tea.

Reishi growing on a standing dead hemlock.  The soft white outer flesh is considered edible.

After spotting one reishi, we soon spotted many more as we realized that we had discovered an amazing reishi spot.  Among the cool greens and soft purples of the hemlock understory, the reishi mushroom stands out like a torch in the night with its white-to-yellow-to-orange-to-red color scheme.  The varnished--or lacquered--appearance of fresh reishi can often create some disbelief among friends that the mushroom has not been treated with anything to give it such an appearance.

Notice the coloration on the beetles eating (and mating) on this older reishi specimen.

In a sea of springtime greens, the fiery colors of the "mushroom of immortality" are hard to overlook.

As we continued to walk through the hemlock stand, Josh spotted a lone mushroom poking out of the dense organic layer of last season's leaf litter.

Amanita muscaria, the Fly Agaric.

What Josh had found was the Amanita muscaria.  Amanita muscaria goes by many names and has become deeply ingrained in our societies' conscience as the stereotypical image of a mushroom.  The Amanita muscaria is also known as the "fly agaric", a name derived from the ancient practice of using pieces of the mushroom (usually in a bowl of milk) to stupefy flies so as to slow them down and make them easier to swat.  One can see likenesses of the Amanita muscaria on everything from posters, candles, and lawn ornaments, to amusement parks and video games (see: Nintendo's character Toad).

The Eastern United States fly agaric has an orange colored cap.

The fly agaric has a few distinctive features that can help one readily identify it as a member of the Amanita family (Amanitaceae), and then as the species Amanita muscaria.  Perhaps the most readily noticeable feature of the fly agaric is the blood-red to orange-red to yellowish cap that is usually covered by white to yellowish patches that represent the remains of the mushroom's universal veil (the universal veil is a protective tissue covering that surrounds the young mushroom--a young mushroom is a "button"--and disintegrates as the mushroom breaks free and matures).  Another feature that can help one identify a mushroom as an amanita is that, in addition to the universal veil, most amanitas have a volva.  A volva is the visible remains at the base of the stalk (stem) of the universal veil that manifest themselves in the form of a sack, free collar, or series of concentric scales or rings (Arora 1979).

Notice the "scaly" volva at the bottom of the mushroom consisting of between 2-4 concentric rings.

Amanita muscaria contains isotonic acid which, when ingested, is converted by the body to muscimol--a known psychoactive agent.  According to David Arora, the fly agaric is one of the oldest intoxicants known.  The mushroom has been used as an entheogen by the indigenous peoples of Siberia.  Shamans and laypeople alike would take the mushroom to achieve a trance-like state in which spiritual and religious connection could be achieved.  Here is the mycologist Gary Lincoff's description of the fly agaric experience:

There are two basic levels for experiencing the fly agaric mushroom (Amanita muscaria).  One level is physical.  The mushroom makes you feel inebriated, so you move, dance, sing, yell, and run around.  You are said to have a song inside you that the mushrooms allows to come out.  The song is the mushroom speaking.  The other level, often called the shamanic level, is more internal or spiritual; it allows you to believe you can fly, see dead people, transform into animals, and communicate with all of nature.  The experience varies according to factors such as expectation, setting, prior experience, and the mix of compounds in any given population of mushrooms.  (2010)

I have never tried this mushroom and most guidebooks or individuals who have recommend against its consumption.  The experience can be a very powerful one and since each mushroom varies in potency, it is often impossible to tell how one will be affected. 

Horsetails (Equisetum sp.)

Finding the reishi and the amanita certainly were the highlights from our walk in the woods but they were not the only interesting specimens (solid reference to the title of my blog) we saw that day.  The following are some of the other interesting plants and fungi we came upon on this wonderful forest foray.

More pheasant's backs (Polyporus squamosus)

Jack-in-the-pulpit (Arisaema triphyllum)

The last dying flowers of the ephemeral spring beauty Trillium (Trillium grandiflorum).

This may be the edible chicken-of-the-woods (Laetiporus sulphureus).

The following mushrooms we found growing in abundance throughout the forest on dead, decaying, or buried logs and stumps.

Megacollybia platyphylla, considered inedible.

Growing out of a stump.

The previous day's thunderstorms brought an awaking to this widely fruiting species.

The underside of Megacollybia platyphylla.

A testament to the strength of mushrooms, this one burst through a dead log as well as about an inch of dense moss!

This is a side by side spore print of Megacollybia platyphylla (on the right) and the fly agaric (on the left).  The Megacollybia cap disintegrated into a puddle of liquid and its flesh was consumed by maggots.  The fly agaric (whose spore print is white) remained relatively untouched and all of the maggots I found below it were dead.  Interesting.  

The epic nature of a large, albeit dead, tree.