Some Great Surprises

Today we were all sort of getting on each other's nerves, so we decided to go and do a hike. We set out to find mushrooms but I (Andrea) was not hopeful. Winter's almost over around here and I didn't know what to expect. But we found some amazing stuff, including some really rare mushrooms. We haven't identified this first one, but are pretty sure that the second picture shows a Black Elfin Saddle or a False Morel, also called a Brain Mushroom. The last two pictures are of a perfect Panther (amanita pantherina) that we found. This is the first one of these that we've ever found ourselves and Liam is ecstatic. He said, "This is a great day for the imagination!" 

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.

Skyline with Kate

We are way behind on my mushroom hike blogging. WAY behind. Last weekend (I think!) our cousin Kate visited, and brought her very own mushroom guide. You seriously cannot ask for a better guest than that. We saw many mushrooms, and Andrea already blogged about the ladybugs. We also saw these. The first one is a brown cup. The next picture shows the bird's nest mushrooms. Those tiny little mushrooms have even tinier little disks in them, so they look like little bird's nests. The last one is a purple fungus we saw growing on the end of a log. Not only was Kate a great mushroom hunter (it runs in the family) but our friends Conor, Finn, Lisa and Pat were awesome too.

A Very Good Mushroom Hike Today

Today, we saw a Death Cap mushroom that was deadly poison and we saw a Honey Mushroom. We saw two white mushrooms. - Liam

This was all on a hike in Garber Park, which is behind the Claremont Hotel. This hike was sponsored by the Claremont Canyon Conservancy and was led by Bob Mackler, a very knowledgeable mycologist. Bob could answer many of Liam's questions. 

This first picture shows the Death Cap, a poisonous mushroom that was Liam's main goal to find today.  I could not get a better picture but it was greenish, and the gills were white. 

Here's the underside of another white mushroom we found, also a member of the amanita family, but not poisonous. Not edible, either. It would taste like a Band-Aid.
Here it is from the top:
Here's the junior mycologist himself.

Here's just a little of the huge oyster mushrooms we saw today.

Great Stuff

A lot of exciting stuff going on in the world of Liam. Liam FINALLY got his own model Southwest airplaine. 

The kids also got bunkbeds. So far, its been a pretty effective technique for getting them to go to bed and sleep.
Finally, we discovered some fungus growing right up the street and we pass it when we walk to school. Not sure what kind it is. We returned the fungus book to the library and are seriously hindered in our mushroom identification efforts by this turn of events.

Mushrooms, Anthony Chabot Regional Park

Today we did a hike in Anthony Chabot, starting at the Big Bear trailhead. Its on the way to the entrance to Redwood, but it seemed like it was going to rain so we wanted to get out of the car as fast as we could and start our mushroom hunt. It was wet enough in there to be the best mushroom hunt yet.

The picture up at the top of this blog was a group of mushrooms we saw today. This picture isn't very clear but shows a coral-type mushroom, probably a carbon antler mushroom. Its the white stick-looking things growing in this picture. They are black at their base and we saw quite of few of these.
We don't know what this one is yet but it was near two other kinds of mushrooms and there was a banana slug headed their way. This one was velvety black with red spots. I think its a Lactarius fallax, although it does not cave in the center like the one at that other website. It looks exactly like a Chocolate Milky (Lactarius lignyotus) except those don't grow west of Wisconsin. Frankly this mycology, nay biology, stuff is just baffling to me.

Green mold fungus, still not identified.

This is probably turkey tail, and we saw a decent amount of it on dead logs.

More to follow.

Mushrooms, Lake Temescal

On December 7, we went to Lake Temescal with our friends Matt and Lexi, and we found some great mushrooms, including a Red Cracked Bolete. We also found one we decided to name Witch's Butt, and a dark purple one that we can't identify. The pictures of these are (a) on my phone and (b) therefore worthless. It was a great hunt, and we brought The Audubon Society Guide to North American Mushrooms with us to help.

Mushrooms, Joaquin Miller

Our first mushroom hunt was in Joaquin Miller Park. We didn't have the fortitude to hike down to the trail that runs along the stream bed, which would have been more fruitful, but we did find these nice fungi on the hills in the park.