Saturday, February 6, 2010

it's been a while...

it's been a good year for mushrooms so far and the fall was excellent as well. had the chance to take a mushroom hike in warner park with naturalist deb beazley and this is what we found:

dead mans fingers

another shot of the deadly galerina
an extremely dangerous mushroom capable of killing anyone who is unfortunate enough to eat it

thin maze flat polypore
a non edible mushroom

inky cap
can be eaten but do not consume alcohol when eating them

more inky caps
our neighbor had thousands of them!

top view of the death cap
one of the most deadly mushrooms out there

bottom view of the death cap
look for the vulva-an egg like case at the bottom of the stem, a sure way to identify the mushroom.
look at the first death cap photo to really see the vulva.

smooth chanterelles
we are so lucky! we also have a neighbor with a yard full of chanterelles. look for oak trees when searching for chanterelles, they are commonly found growing under oak trees.

oyster mushrooms

we really are lucky. we can go picking without ever leaving the neighborhood. another of our neighbors has a maple tree covered in oyster mushrooms.