Notes and photos from Alison M., distributed to the Botany/Mycology Group on November 18. Click a photo to enlarge it.
Until a couple of days ago I had given up on there being anything of interest in our woodlands here on Tsolum River Road. The drought conditions that have persisted now for three summers are taking their toll. Fungi appear to be resilient to a degree, but there is clearly a limit. We have not seen chanterelles here for a couple of years now, but just today I finally found a couple. We were also delighted to find a western cauliflower fungus – an excellent edible. However, good specimens are few.
The photos start with some of the more intriguing fungi to be seen at this time of year.
- and 2. Auriscalpium vulgare or ear-pick, which falls into the tooth or spine category morphologically. It appears only on Douglas-fir cones. Being tiny and with a cap colour that mimics the colour of the cone (as well as the surrounding dark browns) it tends to be hard to detect, but this fall we have found quite a few. (I placed the cone on a cottonwood leaf for contrast.)
- and 4. Pseudohydnum gelatinosum or cat’s tongue or spirit gummy bear, which with its tiny spines falls into the same category as the Auriscalpium, but note that in texture it is gelatinous.
- Xylaria hypoxylon or carbon antlers is a club or spindle type of fungus, growing amid moss on dead stumps. In the photo the black stipe shows white asexual spores, the sexually viable spores are on the black section.
- and 7. and 8. Sparassis radicata or western cauliflower fungus, an uncommon species, which usually appears at the base of old fir stumps, in this case what would have been a first-growth tree removed when the area was logged in the 1920s. The fungus last produced a fruiting body on the stump 5 or 6 years ago. It is usually classed with the coral-type fungi and is a choice edible, though it requires a longer cooking time than some fungi.
- Xercomellus zelleri ( formerly Boletus zelleri) or Zeller’s bolete – one of the later bolete types to appear, with a very distinctive dark cap above the yellow sponge and red/white stipe.
The rest are gilled fungi.
- Lactarius substriatus (formerly Lactarius subflammeus) – no common name – is abundant in our woodland in the later fall and stands out against the green of the various mosses on the ground. It is smaller than most species of Lactarius, has white latex that is unchanging and is bitter to taste, therefore not edible.
- Hygrocybe coccinea or red waxy cap is also striking on a grey November day, far brighter than any of the fallen leaves.
- Russula brevipes or short-stemmed russula. This common russula is only now beginning to push through the duff in profusion though none of the examples I have seen have reached the size of dinner plates, as in some years. (This is the species that becomes the “lobster mushroom” when parasitized by Hypomyces lactiflorum.)
- Pseudosperma sororium (formerly Inocybe sororia) or corn-silk fibrehead. The Inocybe genus is recognizable by the conical shape and the radiating fibrils that split apart as the mushroom ages. Quite a few of the species have been assigned to new genera, including Inosperma, and this common one is now Pseudosperma. This example is one of those that can smell like green corn when young.
- Mycena haematopus or bleeding mycena. There are hundreds of tiny mycenas decorating the forest floor at the moment with their diminutive conical caps, but many of them are very hard to identify. This one however is easy – break the stipe and it oozes red droplets – hence the name.
