Category Archives: Mushroom Monday

April 10, 2017

It’s spring! Embrace the psychology of mycology

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Feel the breeze as you wander among the cottonwoods. To your left, the burble of the great river. To your right, forests busy with rabbit and beaver, where bald eagles build nests in the peaks, the better to keep an … Continue reading →

November 30, 2014

The winter mushroom, Flammulina velutipes

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Flammulina velutipes (Curtis) Singer Edible, but tough. Despite appearances, the commercially produced “enoki” mushroom found in many grocery stores is a cultivated form of this mushroom. One of the best-known and most-produced mushrooms in the world, Flammulina velutipes has a … Continue reading →

November 19, 2014

Best of Illinois: Exploring nature and finding fungus

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The Best of Illinois regional catalog highlights some Press titles that focus on Midwestern subjects including history, art, architecture, food, politics, music and more. Three titles that focus on natural history provide readers an opportunity to take an excursion into … Continue reading →

September 5, 2014

Entoloma salmoneum, or the hunt for the gnome’s hat of mushrooms

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Entoloma salmoneum (Peck) Saccardo  Entoloma salmoneum can be found growing alone or scattered in leaf litter under hardwoods, or in moss under conifers; frequently on rotting, moss-covered conifer logs. When thumbing through Mushrooms of the Midwest, you see Entoloma salmoneum among the … Continue reading →

June 9, 2014

Mushroom Monday: Mycena semivestipes

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Mycena semivestipes (Peck) A.H. Smith Saprobic on the deadwood of hardwoods; causing a white rot; Usually growing in dense clusters; fall and early winter (but occasionally found in summer and spring). Ordinary. Nondescript. Brown. The Mycenas garner little in the … Continue reading →

May 26, 2014

Volvariella bombycina, a silky haired and stately mushroom

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Volvariella bombycina (Schaeffer) Singer [The cap is] oval at first, becoming bell-shaped to broadly complex or nearly flat; whitish or tinged yellowing to brownish in age; the margin not lined; dry; covered with silky hairs. Volvariella bombycina sounds like a nickname … Continue reading →

May 23, 2014

On Mutinus elegans, a mushroom both slightly naughty and very smelly

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Mutinus elegans (Montagne) E. Fischer Usually at least partially submerged in the ground; appearing like a whitish to pinkish or purplish “egg” up to 4 cm high; when sliced, revealing the stinkhorn-to-be encased in a gelatinous substance. Mutinus. Inspired by … Continue reading →

May 12, 2014

Mushroom Monday: Morchella esculentioides

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Morchella esculentioides (M. Kuo, Dewsbury, Moncalvo, & S.L. Stephenson) Edible and very good. Previously known as Morchella esculenta, which recent studies have determined to be strictly European. DNA reveals Morchella cryptica, which is macro- and microscopically indistinguishable, to be a … Continue reading →

May 5, 2014

Mushroom Monday: Coprinus comatus

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Coprinus comatus (O.F. Müller) Persoon Often called the “shaggy mane.” Edible and good when collected in the button stage (when the gills are still white), but compare it carefully with Amanita thiersii and Cholophyllum molybdites, which also grow in lawns and … Continue reading →