Day 12 - Mushroom Hunting I

When fall rains start, mushrooms begin to emerge from the forest floor.  Curious to see what Forest X had in store, I packed a knife and a Ziploc and was on my way.

I found six different fungi on my walk and took them home to examine and reference against books from the library.  What I learned is that identification is really difficult.  Next time I will be better prepared to recognize trees and write down the site where I found the mushroom.

Here's what I found:

 

Mushrooms from Forest X

Five hours later, I was able to identify most of them and unfortunately they are all inedible or leading scientists are just unsure or I wasn't able to confirm identity.  Part of the lesson here is in what not to pick next time.

Fancy latin names and spore prints

If you are interested in the particulars of each mushroom or think you might be able to name some of the unknowns I challenge you to: Identifying Mushrooms

Today I also picked a bunch of blackberries, as the season is coming to a close.  I froze them for later.