What the ...? Hey, it's Mushroom Month!

Well, knock me over with a feather. I just checked the mushroom news, and apparently, September is Mushroom Month. It's being celebrated in Canada, and Pennsylvania, but it seems reasonable that it would be a pan-North American phenomenon. There's been plenty of mushroom activity around here, as the flurry of recent posts would indicate. If you'd like to celebrate with a fancy piece of clip art, you may go here. Or just check out this example:


You could even send someone a nice e-card. Isn't that nice? Happy Mushroom Month!

Now I have to wonder, will there be a Mold Month? Rust and Smut Week? Yeast Day?
How about a Fungi Imperfecti Festival?

The rare lacquered bracket

Here's another fungus in the news, a rare shelf fungus of the genus Ganoderma, G. resinaceum, otherwise known as the lacquered bracket (try saying that ten times fast). It appears that an amateur mycologist stumbled upon it in Worcestershire, UK.

We do have Ganodermas here in Alabama. According to North American Polypores (the 2 volume tome on these fungi, sadly out of print), there are three species in Alabama, G. applanatum, G. lobatum, and G. lucidum. Ganoderma applanatum is known as the artist's conk, due to the staining reaction that occurs when the hymenium (pore surface) is scratched. Kind of like that bolete over there with my name on it. Artist's conks are really common.

Ganoderma lobatum, I haven't seen. Or if I have I didn't know about it.

Ganoderma lucidum is also known as reishi or ling zhi, and like the fungus in the article, may have some medicinal properties. It's also really common, with a lacquered appearance and often, an offset stipe.

Follow up on neighbor's fairy ring

I've just keyed out a mushroom from my neighbor's yard, and I do believe it to be Chlorophyllum molybdites, a common lawn mushroom of the Lepiotaceae (or rather, the Lepiotoid clade). Apparently, it is one of the most common agents in mushroom poisoning, although the toxin is rarely fatal. Key features include: a scaly cap (due to veil remnants, typical of Leps), an annulus (ring around the stipe or stalk), and gills free, at first whitish-yellowish, turning green and yielding a greenish spore print (hence chloro meaning green and phyllum meaning leaf or gill in the case of mushrooms). So, perhaps my neighbor is wise in plucking these mushrooms from her yard, to prevent bold mycologists from attempting to eat them.

Also, I just got back from a trip out west to Tuscaloosa. Quite a few mushrooms busting through over there. Quite a few. Boletes, Amanita, all kinds of good stuff...

Alas, Horse Whisperer author not Mushroom Whisperer

Mushrooms strike again. This time, it's the author of "The Horse Whisperer", Nicholas Evans. Apparently what he thought would be edible and choice were poisonous and life-threatening. The offending basidiocarps were Cortinarius speciosissimus (syn C. rubellus, above). Generally speaking, Cortinarius spp. are not really things for people to eat. According to "The Great Encyclopedia of Mushrooms", one might confuse the species in question for a certain species of chanterelle (Cantharellus tubaeformis). But chanterelles don't truly have gills like these guys do, and their spore print is not rusty brown like the corts.

People, please. When in doubt, throw it out. Your liver and kidneys will thank you. The old saw still holds, "there are old mycologists, and there are bold mycologists, but there are few old, bold mycologists".

Also, an update. My neighbor's fairy ring is fruiting AGAIN less than a week after she diligently plucked all the mushrooms and pitched them into the street.

Another mycophobe

Just saw an article about an air passenger who's allergic to mushrooms, who had a jar of mushroom juice drip on him in the middle of a flight. This forced an emergency landing. What are the chances?
No word on what species of mushrooms was involved, but I'll keep looking into it.

My neighbor, mycophobe

My neighbor, bless her heart, hates mushrooms. She has a lovely fairy ring of mushrooms that sprouts up everytime it rains. She dutifully plucks every single mushroom and chucks them in the street. These pics aren't of her yard, but are nearby.
Tropical Storm Fay came through our corner of Alabama, and now the whole place is bursting forth with succulent basidiocarps, the more technical terms for most mushrooms. We've seen some more boletes coming up too, and I'm still not planning on eating them.

In other news, I've added Wisconsin to the list of States I've visited. WooHoo!

Another interesting use for mushrooms

From Japan, of course.