Fanciful Fall Fungi

Colourfully fruiting fall fungi brighten up the gloomy, wet days of early November. Today, the rain has kept me indoors, but I’ve been reviewing our collection of mushroom pictures and have pulled out a few of my favourites to share.

There is something delightfully ephemeral about mushrooms. They crop up magnificently for a brief time and then moulder away into nothing. Mushroom season is quite short and for this reason I’ve never become particularly adept at identifying them, but this hasn’t stopped me from going out every year to try to learn a few more and enjoy looking at the ones I can’t figure out!

Reviewing our mushroom photos brings back good memories. Around this time last year we were out looking for mushrooms at Miracle Beach Provincial Park. Wandering back behind one of the campsites, I came up over a little knoll and was surprised by a colony of brilliant scarlet coloured mushrooms growing in a bed of moss. In contrast to the darkness of the forest, these little mushrooms glowed brightly like a bed of hot coals. It was a memorable moment. We later looked up this distinctive mushroom and identified it as the scarlet waxy cap (Hygrocybe miniata). It is small and fragile with orange-red waxy looking gills and white spores. Apparently, the brilliant colour fades as it dries.

Another charming mushroom is the western purple laccaria (Laccaria amethysteo-occidentalis). This common, attractive mushroom is a subtle purple or purple-brown colour. It is worth a peek under the cap to see the lovely lavender-coloured gills. The slender stem is is tough and fibrose and sometimes twisted. The western purple laccaria typically grows in Douglas-fir forests and edges of woodlands. Mushroom guru David Aurora states that it is “edible, but of poor quality…it’s beauty is its justification for existence.”

The much sought after yellow chanterelle (Cantharellus cibarius) is a choice edible. One of its handsome, but inedible relatives is the wooly chanterelle (Gomphus floccosus). This fantastically decorative mushroom is distinctively vase shaped. The inside of the vase, sunken at the center, is covered in ruffly looking wooly scales that are orange-red or buffy-yellow. The outside of the “vase” is creamy white and lined with vein-like ridges that extend down the stem. Wooly chanterelles are often found growing under conifers. There is good reason to avoid eating them. According to the New Savory mushroom guide “compounds have been found in the woolly chanterelle that might be harmful to the liver.”

Mushrooms are as interesting to touch as they are to look at. Some feel like suede, some are spongy, and some are downright slimy, or “viscid” as the books say. One of the slimy ones that I took home to identify recently is the rosy gomphidius (Gomphidius subroseus). It has a cute, rose-pink cap that is so slimy it glistens in the rain. The white or gray-tinged gills extend down the top part of the stem. The slimy stem is white at the top but becomes bright yellow toward the base. At the top of the stem is a curious black ring. I later learned that the ring is formed by the veil, and is blackened by  spores. We made a spore-print by laying the cap on piece of paper overnight, which resulted in a smoky-black print. The rosy gomphidius is found under conifers, especially Douglas-fir.

The last mushroom I’d like to mention is perhaps the most elegant. The western red-capped cortinarius (Cortinarius phoniceus var.occidentalis) has a maroon red or reddish-brown cap, but the rich, velvety-red colour of the gills is this mushroom’s most striking feature. The gills also have a changeable sheen, and the colour changes slightly when viewed from different angles. The stem is ocher-yellow and tinged with red at the bottom. This mushroom has toxic compounds and is not recommended for eating, but it sure is nice to look at!

When the rain stops I’m hoping that we can get out to photograph more mushrooms this fall. Mushroom season won’t last much longer, so now is the time!

Filed under Nature Writing | Tags: Fungi, Mushrooms, nature | Comment (0)