A mossy forest is prime mushroom habitat. Mushrooms love moisture and trees. Some mushrooms grow on dead wood, while others live in cooperative relationships with live trees.
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| Prime Mushroom Habitat |
It's late September and the mushrooms are popping!
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| Peekaboo Matsutake |
This white mushroom emerging from the moss looks so much like the much sought-after 'piney' (aka matsutake), but we didn't know that when we were there! We didn't dig it up but would next time. You can tell a piney by its strong cinnamon smell and hard stipe (stalk).
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| Chanterelles |
There were chanterelles everywhere! At least, I think these are chanterelles, with their trumpet shape and crosshatched ridges instead of separate gills. We only picked one, for further examination. Wish we'd picked a couple more while we were there. We hear chanterelles are delicious!
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| Chanterelles |
There were a few of these big boletes, below. They may be admiral boletes. Boletes are great for beginner mushroomers like us because while they're not all good for eating, none of them will harm a person beyond a tummy ache. You can tell a bolete by the pores under the cap, instead of gills.
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| Admiral Bolete |
And then there was this weird thing... I think it's an orange coral. People don't generally eat them, I just think they're really creepy-cool looking.
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| Creepy Cool Fungus |
We also ran into this little guy. If you know what kind of frog this is I'd love to hear from you.
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| Teensy Forest Frog |
