Reader David Jorling sent photos of mushrooms. His text is indented, and you can enlarge the photos by clicking on them. Note that he emphasizes that he’s not sure of all the identifications.
I have finally collected enough new mushroom photos to share. These were all taken on my cell phone and in Tryon Creek State Park just south of Portland, unless otherwise noted. I am using one of those handy field guides to identify the mushrooms, so the identifications may not be totally accurate.
Fly Agaric, Amantia Muscaria:
At first I thought these were Cat’s Tongue, but now I think they’re Lung Oysters. Pleurotus Ostraetus:
Red-Tinged Daperling, Leucoagaricus:
Shaggy Mane, Corpinus comatus:
Dyer’s Polypore, Phaeolus Schweinitzii:
Two more Lung Oysters, Pleurotus ostraetus:
Fairy Inkcaps, Coprinellus disseminatus:
Mushrooms for sale at the local farmer’s market:
Handy to use this for IDing mushrooms.
Thank you, David. I am a retired engineer who knows next to nothing about life sciences. I think I do know that the mushrooms we see on the surface (in readers’ photos in general) are just the surface expression of what might be a very large underground fungal complex. So how do these many varieties of mushrooms get to a single wooded area to begin with? Once there and popping above the ground, I think it is through spreading spores, but where did the original underground fungus come from in what appears to be an isolated section of woods?
A very interesting set! Thank you for sharing.
Cool!
Great post and photos. Some of the common names and species names are honorifics (Dyer, Schweinitz). Does anyone know if the mob is coming for fungal names as they have for birds?
I think the first photo is actually some sort of pholiota (https://www.mushroomexpert.com/pholiota.html). Fly agaric usually spouts from the ground and is unclustered. Also the gills tend to be white unless the mushroom is old.
Beautiful photos. I enjoyed seeing the final photo of the labeled edibles for sale after all the found-in-nature pics. I saw people harvesting mushrooms that were growing in parks when I lived in Seattle. I wouldn’t know safe from poisonous and must trust the grocer.
We were hiking in Tyrone Creek park just last week! I confirm there were so many different mushrooms on display. Fall mushroom season is just about here and I’m dreaming of chanterelles.
Very nice pictures, many thanks. We have had a surreal summer here in the UK, and so far I haven’t seen many mushrooms worth foraging. I live in hope!
Still, the wild damsons have been prolific; and today I gathered a couple of kilos of sloes for this year’s sloe gin. That’s my Christmas presents sorted!
Correct spelling is Coprinus, whose gills deliquesce and become black and sticky.
They are edible but if you eat them and drink alcohol you will become stoned! Amanitas, the deadly ones, have permanently white gills.Agaricus has whitish gills that turn pink and then brown.Always take a spore print and wait till it starts turning color. White ones are the dangerous ones.
There’s been some mucking around with the taxonomy, and it’s not all Coprinus sp that contain coprine, the hemiaminal of cyclopropanone with glutamine that it metabolized to cyclopropanone, which then forms an adduct with the catalytic cysteine residue of aldehyde dehydrogenase, causing ethanol-derived acetaldehyde levels to rise during alcohol consumption, which makes you sick.
Coprinopsis atramentarius is the smooth-capped ink-cap mushroom that you should avoid because of that. Coprinus comatus, above, aka shaggymane, is coprine-free and excellent eating. I’m not aware of any other mushroom that has a risk of being confused with a shaggymane.
I notice ivy in a picture – Hedera helix. This Eurasian plant is invasive in your state – rip it out! My friend who lives in Hillsboro’ at one time worked as a volunteer clearing it…