Mycology

Main Entry: my·col·o·gy
Pronunciation: \mī-ˈkä-lə-jē\
Function: noun
Etymology: New Latin mycologia, from myc- + Latin -logia -logy
Date: 1836
1 : a branch of biology dealing with fungi
2 : fungal life

I made good on my commitment and checked out two books on mushrooms of the Pacific Northwest from our library! How 'bout them cookies? The more I read and try to identify specific mushrooms, the more I find that I do not understand yet about fungi. I am taking notes, as they recommend, and slicing, and examining and taking spore prints! I am learning vocabulary like campanulate, and universal and partial veil. Or how about infundibuliform or scrobiculate or alliaceous or gleba? Mycology has an entire language of its own, and unless you understand the terms, it is difficult to identify your mushroom in hand. It will be a long process of learning for me, but I have commenced with my studies :-)

Remember this big mushroom (top left) from my last mushroom blog? As it matured, the cap (margins) raised up and it turned a tannish-brown color. This was my first spore print I took. See the upper right photo in the first picture board? To take a spore print you cut the stipe (base) of a gilled mushroom off, then put it upside down on a piece of white cardstock, cover with a bowl (to prevent drying out too rapidly) and leave it for several hours or overnight. Pretty fun! This print shows cinnamon-colored spores. The color of the spores help in the identification process.

Here is another species I am working with. I found them on the barked path to the garden. These spores were black-brown.

While I was dragging brush debris to the burn pile, I came upon these beauties on the well road. The tops were shiny, sticky and slimy! They grew in clusters, and the spores were a medium brown.

These photos are mostly the dried up mature ones from the picture on the top left of this picture board. They are weird. I think it is considered to have a universal veil. They are soft like a puffy marshmallow. Inside are fibers that house prolific brown dust-like spores that literally fumigate the surrounding area!

I found this blue-green beauty today while cutting down the Japanese anemones! I love the color! The bottom left picture is of a more mature one. Looks like a fried egg to me! It, too, was shiny, sticky and slimy. Interesting to find the stipe hollow inside. I am still collecting a spore print on it. Like finger printing, but takes longer!

The first photo shows an example of a cup-fungi (discomycetes). Their shapes are more or less cup-like. It was nesting close to the house, on some bark. The next ones are quite common around the yard, especially in the grassy areas.

And remember this one? It is the only one I have tentatively identified as a Coprinus comatus, otherwise known as Shaggy Mane. If you look closely, you will see a drip of something like black ink oozing from the cap. It is described as being tall and stately! So true!

That was my fun for this past weekend. I have much to do in identifying all these species yet. Meantime, every time I go outside, I seem to stumble upon yet another variety!



Falling in love is like eating mushrooms, you never know if it's the real thing until it's too late.
~Bill Balance

If only one could tell true love from false love as one can tell mushrooms from toadstools. ~Katherine Mansfield

Question for a prize to the first who answers correctly: What is the difference between a mushroom and a toadstool?