• Wednesday-What'sUP September 24 - 07:28 am

I wonder if there are any Mycologists out there in Pasty Land? In case you don't know what I'm talking about, that's a botanist who specializes in the study of fungi, which is of course our photo subject today. Compliments of Dennis Kemper, Mona Grigg and Donna MacIntosh, we have a variety of mushrooms from around the U.P. to examine, none of which I can identify as anything specific, other than to say it's a mushroom.

From what I understand, spore print color is a way of identifying different types of fungi, with the colors including white (which is the most common), brown, black, purple-brown, pink, yellow, and cream, but you'll rarely see any blue, green, or red amongst mushrooms. Another method used to identify mushrooms is by smelling or tasting them, which is actually quite dangerous due to the allergens and poisons some may carry. Your best rule of thumb is, if you don't know if it's edible, DON'T EAT IT! Just enjoy them for the way they stand out on the forest floor or unexpectedly pop up in your yard.

Very cool pictures, but those mushrooms growing in my yard are not very attractive!

Nice detail and I'm already thinking about dinner.

I can identify the last 'shroom (the one with the yellow cap): it's Amanita muscaria var. Formosa.
See Amanita muscaria, I have a picture of several of these here: Similar Shrooms.

Mary says: David also has another interesting specimen of a mushroom that resembles a hedgehog...you can check it out here: Lycoperdon echinatum.

My Grandfather lived in the U.P. for about 70 years of his life. Apparently, he could tell an edible mushroom from the poisonous ones. Unfortunately, he didn't pass that knowledge on to any of the rest of us!

The mushrooms growing on the dead tree trunk appear to be similar to what folks in southeast Indiana call "hickory jacks". Picked soon after they first appear, hickory jacks are tender delicious when fried in butter.

The dead tree trunk looks like it might be pine, the mushrooms probably are not edible at any time. Perhaps someone will provide more information.

The top two pictures look exactly like the strain of mushrooms we have growing on the "pump house road", beside our house here above the dunes at Eagle River. They seem to be secreting some type of tar-like substance around the edges.

We had those fancy top mushrooms magically appear next to our driveway (never seen them there before), stayed for a couple of days, and then died off entirely. I wish I knew what they were, too!

I take pictures of mushrooms too if they catch my eye for some reason. We always liked the ones that made "smoke" when you stomp on them.

Aren't this fungi just too beautiful! Another product of The Creator's creativity! I remember waaaaaaaayyyyy back as a little one, popping the "puff balls" found along the country road. Had a brother-in-law one time sharing a mushroom that showed up on a tree stump and it filled one-half of his double kitchen sink! MMMMMmmm good eating!

I'll purchase mine from the grocery store thank you!

We saw clumps of the mushrooms in the first photo on M-26 west of the Silver River bridge and before the Lake Bailey public access on the 14th of Sept. I'd not bothered to upload the photos but here are a couple of them in their early stages. They had elongated and turned into a flat fibrous black patch within three days and appear to have an extremely short above-ground existence. Didn't take a picture of that though.

Here are great sites for wild mushrooms:

http://mdc.mo.gov/nathis/mushrooms/mushroom/edible.htm

http://mdc.mo.gov/nathis/mushrooms/mushroom/poisonous.htm

I believe the two top photos are of inky caps, which are supposedly edible when young, then toxic as they mature. I wouldn't run the risk.

When I was at Tech so many moons ago, I took a couple of classes on fungi from Dr. Fred Erbisch. At one point, Dr. Erbisch worked to identify a "mystery mine fungus" in the Arcadian Mine, which ultimately proved to be the underground portion of a fungus that grew above ground.

Although Dr. Erbisch knew a ton about wild mushrooms, he wasn't keen on eating them. He told us a story specifically about inky caps: a guy who presumably knew what he was doing ate some inky caps and went blind. Yikes! I'm with Uncle Chuck: the grocery store is the best bet, unless it's a morel.

The top 2 photo's and Richard's are probably the "Shaggy ink cap" (Shaggy Mane).

It looks like we're gonna have a bunch of "fun guys" on here today!



I wonder if any of these mushrooms are just the tip of "the iceberg", as in the case of the Humungus Fungus near Crystal Falls?

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Quote:

"It weighs roughly 11 tons and covers 37 acres. This makes it the largest mushroom (fungus) in the world - it's hard to believe this monster mushroom is growing in Michigan and not Texas! Based on the average rate of growth through the soil, the Humongous Fungus is probably more than 1,500 years old."

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Thanks Suzanne, that site on edible mushrooms makes me think that at least some of the youngest were ok to eat. Thanks to Dunerat and Fred, too. Now how about a bug ID? From the tip of its tail to fore legs it's about 3 inches.

Back in the 1800's in Ontario, I had ancestors who lost most of their children to mushroom poisoning. I can't remember exactly how many, 8 to 10?? I'm not home or I'd have access to all my genealogy info. I can't even imagine having all my children die that way. Lucky for me, my ancestor didn't, or I wouldn't be here!!

Richards pictures look like a cactus my mom had. They just grew on top of each other.

As a child, my Dad and Grandpa passed on their knowledge of edibles In the fall, we walked the woods and collected all sorts for "spore" prints.
Then we would take them to school for show and tell. I still go sniffing around for morales in the spring. Lots of problems with out of staters coming in to strip our spots. Guess they get
pretty good $ for them.

Isn't there a "false morel", too? I've read that they can be eaten, but sometimes they can make people sick.

A couple of years ago, almost an entire family in the San Jose, CA area was wiped out, after their family dinner. The grandmother took her grandchildren out mushroom picking. She had been doing that almost her whole life, with no adverse effects, until that time. She picked what she thought were the same mushrooms she had always picked. A couple of them were saved, because a doctor out there had been working on an antidote for that poison. It was not FDA approved, so none was available in the US. He had to call colleagues in Germany, I think it was, to get some flown over, by special courier, after gaining a temporary ok by the FDA, since the remaining relatives would have died without it. This woman was 75 years old. I agree with Laura B. & Uncle Chuck, that one can't be too safe on the mushroom front.

Richard, your spectacular mystery bug is a member of the cranefly family, specifically "Pedicia albivitta".

Rachel, yes there is a false morel, and it will make you sick. It looks very much like a morel, but the base of the cap doesn't merge into the stem; instead, it's more like an umbrella that's opened up a little. Many morel hunters slice them in half vertically to verify that the cap and stem are joined (also to get rid of the occasional bug that finds its way into the hollow interior).

Can anyone remind me of the procedures to get photos into posts, also for making text italic...

Dunerat (Dunerat):
"… to get photos into posts, also for making text italic... "

1. Images: \image{text}
2. Italic: \i{text}, yields: text

See further instructions here or here
(They're slightly different, but both are correct.)

Anyone 4 hamburgers topped with plenty of mushrooms? Mmmmmmm....

CAUTION! The first 2 pictures without Googling or getting out some books appear to be what is sometime called "The Angel of Death" VERY Very toxic! Or these are similiar to it. Hopefully someone can confirm this right away! I heard just breathing a bit of the spore dust can send you into convulsions! Can't be to careful even if what I say is incorrect. We've had those come up from our lawn and I stay clear, unless carefully shoveling them up and disposing!

Hey, you people are freaking me out, man. I just bought some fresh sliced mushrooms at the store and tossed a boatload into a salad. Now could someone please tell me how to get rid of the pink elephants that are riding bikes on my ceiling?

There's a Fungus among us

Alex, LOL, They'll go away in a few hours,lol!!

Hey Richard, I had one of those beautiful bugs on the side of my house and took a couple of pics too...

http://gallery.pasty.com/thumbnails.php?album=3135&page=2

After reading about the California stories and others, we decided that the mushrooms that we eat will come from the grocery store, thank you. (Add to that, my silly youngest son doesn't like mushrooms, but the rest of us do.)

Wow! The first picture looks like something out of a fairy tale. Gorgeous picture!

The third pic (mine) is a tree fungus. Pretty neat looking, except they actually kill trees. I'll try not to think about that part.

I actually just saw a red mushroom out in the woods, but I didn't have my camera. I'll try and go back tomorrow to see it it's still there.

My daughter got a picture of those red mushrooms in the pictured rocks. They were different.

Here is a link to information about the Death Angel. It doesn't seem to resemble the ones pictures above.

http://botit.botany.wisc.edu/toms_fungi/sept97.html