Point Reyes Mini-Fungus Fair

Today the Bay Area Mycological Society hosted a Mini-Fungus Fair at Point Reyes National Park, so we drove up early, and did a little hike near the visitor center. The Woodpecker Trail is a nice little variable trail that starts in a little clutch of trees that have all been pecked with thousands of holes. Apparently the woodpeckers aren't hunting for bugs, they store acorns in the little holes they make. Who knew? The trail went through a meadow and then into a denser forest, where we found plenty of mushrooms. In particular, we found a gorgeous scarlet cup and several huge conks. 

The Fungus Fair (don't know why they called it Mini) was several tables of mushrooms that the BAMS member had collected yesterday. This was huge for us because we got to see some mushrooms we haven't been able to find, like the Panther (amanita pantherina) and the Gemmed Amanita (amanita gemmata). On top of that, we confirmed that a harmless seeming little brown mushroom we found yesterday is actually a Deadly Galerina. We brought it home and did a really cool spore print with it, so we weren't too psyched to learn that its at least as deadly as the Death Cap.

This first one is the Panther mushroom, followed by the beautiful Fly Agaric they had collected. Finally, some Turkey Tail we saw in the woods.