A thing of beauty
A thing of beauty is a joy for ever:
Its loveliness increases
Because it’s a fungus, that’s why.
(Apologies to John Keats.)
Filed in Gabriola Island, mushrooms, native plants, photos No Responses yet
Archive for the 'mushrooms' Category
Fungus, but pretty as a rose
I am smitten with this fungus. Smitten! I obsess about it, because isn’t it gorgeous? Ok, maybe this photo doesn’t do it justice. See more photos here.
I wish a mushroom expert would arrive to help me identify the fungi I find in the Gabriola woods, because that would be ever so helpful. I think this [...]
Filed in Gabriola Island, mushrooms, photos No Responses yet
Rotting in the Gabriola forest
I’m interested in Gabriola’s trees, but not for the usual reasons. I want to know what they look like in various stages of decay, both before and after they fall to the ground. That rotting log or that moss-covered branch: was it a cedar tree? Grand fir? Douglas fir? Alder? I’m getting better at this.
Part [...]
Filed in Gabriola Island, environment, mushrooms, photos No Responses yet
Gabriola’s wine-dark polypore
Here’s a fungus I come across now and again in the Gabriola woods. I’ve seen some small specimens, but most of the ones I’ve found are huge. The one I saw last week was bigger than the platter you use for serving Christmas turkey. Amazing.
I’d love to know what it is, and I suppose I [...]
Filed in mushrooms No Responses yet
Found: agarikon?
I think I’ve found an agarikon fungus on Gabriola. Please take a look at the photos and tell me what you think.
I blogged about agarikon last month, and have been looking around for agarikon on Gabriola ever since. Who could resist looking for such a rare and interesting thing? I wondered if I’d find any, [...]
Filed in Gabriola Island, mushrooms One Response so far
A Gabriola winter mushroom
A friend photographed these mushrooms in the Gabriola woods this morning. (Photo used here with permission.)
Good photo, isn’t it? Well-composed, a nice balance of light and dark, and the blurry background looks like it was done by an impressionist painter.
Filed in Gabriola Island, mushrooms, photos No Responses yet
Six ways mushrooms can save the world
Here’s some Monday mushroom content for you:
Mycologist Paul Stamets lists 6 ways the mycelium fungus can help save the universe: cleaning polluted soil, making insecticides, treating smallpox and even flu …
It’s a video at ted.com; if you’ve got 18 minutes to spare, go take a look Paul Stamets on 6 ways mushrooms can save the [...]
Filed in mushrooms No Responses yet
The Gabriola tattoo woodpecker
These holes must be the work of a woodpecker, and I wish I knew which one — this creature is all over the Gabriola forest. Whatever the bird is, I’d call it the tattoo woodpecker if I were naming it. Two reasons:
This woodpecker creates tiny holes in the tree’s skin and injects something (more on [...]
Filed in Gabriola Island, birds, mushrooms, photos 2 Comments so far
Tiny, shiny ’shrooms
New today in the Gabriola woods: these ever-so-small mushrooms.
I’d never be able to see all this detail without the zoom lens. (The mushrooms, in real life, are about a centimeter wide.)
Filed in Gabriola Island, mushrooms, photos No Responses yet
Agarikon: fungus that could be medicine
Mother Jones magazine has a fascinating article about a fungus that grows on islands near Gabriola. (And who knows? Maybe it grows on Gabriola, too!) The article is Return of the Fungi:
In the old-growth forests of the Pacific Northwest grows a bulbous, prehistoric-looking mushroom called agarikon. It prefers to colonize century-old Douglas fir trees, growing [...]
Filed in environment, mushrooms No Responses yet
Identifying Gabriola’s mushrooms
In the Gabriola forest I see more mushroom varieties than I ever could have imagined. What are they? Which mushrooms are edible? Which are poisonous? I spent a lot of time wondering about this, so last year I decided to learn about mushrooms and figure it out. And I did.
Now I get it: I know [...]
Filed in Gabriola Island, mushrooms 3 Comments so far
Making ink from mushrooms
You’ve seen Shaggy Mane mushrooms, and maybe you’ve fried some up for dinner, too. But did you know you can make ink out of them? Shaggy Manes (Coprinus comatus) are inky cap mushrooms. MushroomExpert.com explains about inky caps:
Inky caps are fascinating mushrooms. They are saprobes, assisting in the decomposition of wood, dung, grassy debris, forest [...]
Filed in mushrooms No Responses yet
Shaggy Mane mushrooms
This is the Shaggy Mane (Coprinus comatus) mushroom. It’s edible and choice, and all over the place on Gabriola. When it’s young it looks like the left and centre specimens. When it opens up like an umbrella, this mushroom is past it’s prime, and you wouldn’t want to have it for dinner. When it gets [...]
Filed in mushrooms No Responses yet
Argh! Out-of-reach mushrooms.
Here’s something that is driving me slightly crazy just now. See these? I think they’re oyster mushrooms. If only I had the chance, I’d pick some, check them out to see exactly what they are, and maybe even eat some. I really really want to get at these mushrooms. But alas: they’re out of reach. [...]
Filed in mushrooms No Responses yet
Turkey Tail
What with my mushroom obsession and Thanksgiving, this seems a perfect time to show you a polypore called Turkey Tail. (In Latin it’s either Trametes versicolor, Coriolus versicolor, or Plyporus versicolor. Because taxonomy is like that, that is why.)
It’s a shelf-like thing, and on Gabriola it grows on old alder – either fallen or standing. [...]
Filed in mushrooms No Responses yet
Mushrooms, slime molds, and jellies: oh my!
We have zillions of mushrooms on Gabriola, and lots of slime molds and jellies, too. Here’s what some of them look like as they grow.
Filed in mushrooms No Responses yet
Gabriola’s black mushroom
The acronym MOTD used to mean ‘message of the day’ to me — it was the message that a Unix system presented to the user on login. These days, the letters MOTD mean mushroom of the day as far as I’m concerned — there are zillions of mushrooms on Gabriola, and I find new ones [...]
Filed in Gabriola Island, mushrooms No Responses yet
Oyster mushrooms, maybe?
What do you think? Are these oyster mushrooms?
I see mushrooms like this all over Gabriola. These ones are growing on a deal alder tree. The sawdust on them? Blame that on the woodpeckers, who’ve been busy drilling holes above the mushrooms.
Filed in Gabriola Island, mushrooms 2 Comments so far
Aha! Chanterelles at last!
The only Chanterelle-hunters I know on Gabriola tell me it’s too late for these mushrooms now; they should have been collected in October. Well, that’s just fine. I found a Chanterelle patch nobody else knows about, and you can be sure I’ll be back in the forest next fall to look for a new crop [...]
Filed in Gabriola Island, mushrooms, native plants No Responses yet
