Monday, June 30, 2014

Nature Finds: Mushrooms


With all the rain, mushrooms are appearing everywhere.  There are lots of great edible ones we know and are comfortable eating - chantarelles and the orange milk-caps (Lactarius), but also many other interesting mushrooms, some that we of course can't identify.  These are some amazing Ganoderma mushrooms fruiting on a stump.  Ganodermas are very medicinal and immune-supporting.  They also have amazing purple rings that will develop on them, although these look pale in the photo.



There are lots of the orange blue-staining boletes all over.  It's cool to watch them react with the air and turn bright blue when the underside is poked, but we try not to disturb the mushrooms too much so that the real fungus does not get damaged.  We like fungus!  They are an important part of the ecosystem and support soil and plant life.


I'm not quite sure what this one is, but it looks like the classic European amanita mushroom.  I wonder if it is related.


Lastly, some great turkey tail mushrooms decorating a rotten log in the pig pen.  A friend of ours makes a medicinal tea from them.  I love the way they make a dead log look lacy and beautiful.

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