From an email by Jocie to the Botany Group on October 9.
The fun of fungi is never knowing what will turn up from one year to the next…every year I seem to find fungi that are new to me. This is a vast and difficult group of organisms to study—humbling but inspiring!
Here are a few highlights of things I’ve seen lately:
- Strawberries and cream, also known as the blood fungus (Hydnellum peckii): spectacular when fresh, a favourite!
- Cauliflower (Sparassis crispa): edible, but too beautiful to eat.
- Angel wings (Pleurocybela porrigens): edible, and likewise too beautiful to eat!
- Round-headed truffle club (Tolypocladium capitatum): these strange little shrooms grow from an underground truffle, Elaphomyces. Note the pimply texture of the cap.
- Slippery jack (genus Suillus).
Lastly is a slime mould (not a fungus) that I stumbled upon while fungi-looking. Coral slime (genus Ceratiomyxa) is tiny, with finger-like clusters that look like miniature anemones. On a rotting log.
Most of these are from an area of small lakes north of Campbell River, where I was hunting for chanterelles (sorry, can’t disclose the exact location!).
The strawberries and cream and slippery jacks are from the Merville Woods (Williams Beach Road).
