Wednesday, October 30, 2013

Mushroom Mania

Despite being one of the driest Octobers on record, we've had an amazing abundance and variety of mushrooms this year. I heard one local mushroom expert comment that it was a bumper crop kind of year. Last weekend I took advantage of our crisp, clear autumn weather to get out there and see how many different kinds of fungi I could find. Turns out mushroom photography is a great way for a nature photographer to get a workout! I probably did about 100 deep knee bends over the course of two days and was definitely feeling it afterwards. I haven't had time to look at the field guides yet, but here are some of the results:





















4 comments:

  1. Bloody amazing! We also seem to have an abundance of mushrooms around the Portland area. Very cool, since I love mushrooms. My favorite photos in your blog are
    #s 15 and 17.

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  2. Nice! And I concur on the workout aspect - I did the same a week or so ago. Are you going to be posting a follow-up with the ID on these? Many of them look just like ones we have on our property and I have no idea what any of them are - would love to know.

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  3. Laurie - It will probably be a few weeks before I get some serious time with the field guides (we've got a trip coming up), but I'll try to post an update after I've got some IDs! Thanks for letting me know there's interest.

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  4. What lovely photos! It has been a truly wondrous mushroom season. Here are my tentative ID's (at least give you a place to get started when you get the field guides out).
    3. Could be a deer mushroom (Pluteus cervinus) if it was growing on wood (buried wood perhaps)
    4. Laccaria sp.
    5-6, 9-10, 13. Laccaria amethysteo-occidentalis (the western Amethyst Laccaria)
    7. A Russula (could be the shrimp Russula, R. xerampalina)
    8. A waxycap (Hygrocybe sp.)
    14. Cortinarius semisanguineus! Sometimes called the surprise webcap. An excellent dye mushroom--it colors wool and silk in shades of red and pink.
    17. Russula sp.
    20. A waxycap (Hygrocybe sp.)

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