Yesterday I took a day to roam around the beautiful woods hereabouts and pick some shrooms. I have been seeking Boletus edulis for some years, as they are claimed to be present but I have rarely found locals that know and can reliably identify the species. One of my neighbors can, and they are acclaimed as good eating around the world. [I here refer to the tasty mushrooms, and not my neighbor, despite what AOC's overexcitable cannibal fans or Swedish academics might think.]
Welp, I finally found one that I am absolutely confident is the right species, and therefore will cook up and eat! A great milestone for me, and very educational since the reason I have not found them before is that I haven't looked under shore pines on ancient dunes before (my neighbor told me she had found them there).
Frankly I have avoided that habitat because Tricholoma murillianum (formerly Armillaria ponderosa), an exquisite and highly desirable mushroom that can sell for $250/lb., grows there, and various armed gangs actually guard patches of them, encounters with which tend to dampen my enjoyment of foraging. I reckon I beat the Russians, Cambodians, and Vietnamese to this one LOL
I also found a lot of Chanterelles, Cantharellus cibarius.
These are not down by the sea where the B. edulis was, but high in the mountains. There are so many coral mushrooms around right now it's hard to avoid stepping on them, and many species of different colors from white, cream, golden, pink, brown, and carmine red abound - none of which I know to be edible - of various genuses from Ramaria, Clavaria, and Clavellina. My camera (phone) is very poor at taking low light pics, so I am sorry for the washed out photos, but it's all I have to take pics with. I didn't take any pics of the corals because like the above Chanterelle, the details and colors are just blank white flash.
I found some edible Toothed Jelly fungus, Pseudohydnum gelatinosum, but didn't pick them as I had a couple kilos of Chanterelles already, and the jellies are very bland and soft, so I left them for wildlife. This pic shows their color and translucence though, at least on the specimen to the far left, which may help you identify them in your neck of the woods.
I also found Angel's Wings, Pleurocybella porrigens, or a pure white variety of oyster mushroom that is quite delectable (there are two incidents involving P. porrigens in Japan that indicate the variety there can occasionally be toxic for those with liver problems. I am not in Japan, and don't have liver problems, so I eat them without concern). I didn't pick these either, as they were growing on a log that was at the very end of suitability for the species, and the remnant of the likely once huge colony was very small, the largest cap about ~1 inch across.
While down on the dunes grown over by shore pines I found emerging Amanita muscaria, Fly Agaric, or Magic Mushrooms, some buttons of which have been devoured by native leopard slugs.
Last year I found an amazing specimen of Chicken of the Woods, or Sulphur shelf, Laetiporus sulphureus, on a standing snag over a meter thick.
Probably over 100 kilos of fruiting bodies in this pic alone, and all sides of the 10 meter plus tall snag bore them. Sometime between then and now the snag fell, and here's how it looks presently.
There are other parts of the broken snag, with tasty mushrooms growing on them as well, scattered down the steep hillside.
Lastly, I found the very tasty parasitic fungus known as the Lobster mushroom, Hypomyces lactofluorum, because it is the bright orange red color of freshly boiled lobster and other ocean crustaceans. This pic doesn't show that red color well, but the strange shape is visible in the mushroom about in the center of this pic.
I did take a lot more pics, but few of them are not washed out by the flash. Maybe I'll figure out a way to take better pics as the season progresses. I'll see what I can do.
Hope you enjoy these pics and the info half as much as I did tramping around in the woods taking them!
Edit: I realized just now I had mislabeled the picture I included of the half eaten A. muscaria the slug was leaving, so I deleted the pic. I will see about finding the right pic and sticking it in, but none of the distinctive red cap was left, so I may not bother as it didn't add much to the post.
Forgive my error.
