fungi
Blewit eaters
Blewits are tasty purple mushrooms, so it’s always exciting to find them. But imagine how excited I was when I found they had an ornate and seldom-seen parasitic mold growing on them. Do you know me at all? I was ecstatic.
Phylloporus, a gilled bolete
Phylloporus rhodoxanthus is a mushroom with gills, but here we reveal its secret allegiance with the tribe of boletes. Boletes are normally not gilled, but instead have pores or tubes that form a spongy layer beneath their caps. Sneaky Phylloporus.
The destroying angel
The destroying angel is a notorious mushroom, because it’s quite deadly. It’s also very handsome and stately. When you are learning mushrooms, this is a good one to learn early on. Spore print color, the annulus, the volva…all these things can help you tell it apart from friendlier mushrooms, if you know what to look for.
The Friday Afternoon Mycologist
The Friday Afternoon Mycologist makes his first appearance on the Blog, and tells us about his vexing and/or intriguing liverwort fungus. Why is mycology so hard? And why do all truly interesting things happen on Friday afternoons?
I survived the “Destroying Angel”
In one of our most popular posts, Richard Eshelman tells the story of his near-death experience after eating the destroying angel mushroom, Amanita bisporigera.
Stalking the Hen of the Woods
A beautiful Fall find, the Hen of the Woods. It’s big, it tastes great, and it might just cure what ails you.
A spider’s nightmare
I’m no fan of spiders, but I have to admire them when they are thoroughly dead and covered in fungus. Here are two fungusy spiders in glorious rotation. That’s right, I’m no fan of spiders, but I am definitely a fan of fungi.
The world in your oyster
The oyster mushroom has many secrets. Yes, the one you can buy in the supermarket (or find in the woods). It is a predator of sorts, but don’t worry, it normally goes for lesser prey than you and I.