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 […]
Category: Mushroom Monday
The winter mushroom, Flammulina velutipes
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 […]
Best of Illinois: Exploring nature and finding fungus
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 […]
Entoloma salmoneum, or the hunt for the gnome’s hat of mushrooms
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 […]
Mushroom Monday: Mycena semivestipes
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 […]
Volvariella bombycina, a silky haired and stately mushroom
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; […]
On Mutinus elegans, a mushroom both slightly naughty and very smelly
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 […]
Mushroom Monday: Morchella esculentioides
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 […]
Mushroom Monday: Coprinus comatus
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 […]