The ground is sodden, weeds are rampant, the lawn seems to need mowing every three days: perfect mushroom weather. Mushrooms appear as though suddenly, the fruiting bodies of fungi. Here, a mass of shelf mushrooms climb a stump, looking like the frilly lace on a ball gown.
They surround a fallen log, emphasizing an oval pattern.
The underside of a mass of shelf mushrooms are a deep and velvety browny red.
It's not only shelf mushrooms that show up in large masses: here, a gathering of tiny orange toadstools decorate the lower edge of a moss covered tree stump.
Very small....
...to teeny mushrooms appear amid mosses and lichens, figures in a miniature world.
Larger mushrooms are also popping up, such as this elegant specimen, a wide fountain above a slender stem.
One of my favorite mushrooms in the woods is this varnished shelf mushroom with its gorgeous, glossy color. It emerges from a stump as a small beige knob, that gradually expands and colors. This is a large mushroom, about 8 inches across.
Finally, some edible mushrooms: chanterelles appearing on the path in the woods, in a location where they've never been before. Their deep orange-yellow color announces them: come and get me! and I did, the next day taking my knife and basket and gathering enough for a delicious omelette. What can be more magical than gathering a meal from the woods?
Braver than me!
ReplyDeleteBrave? do you mean eating wild mushrooms? I only eat what I am very very sure of, and chanterelles are easy to identify.
DeleteFabulous photos! Glad you got to enjoy Chanterelles. Yum.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Julie. I'm hoping for another chanterelle meal, a pizza.
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