That was a completely unintended week-long blog vacation that proved to be much needed. I am so happy to be back though!
Are you a forager? With all of our walks in the woods, I have recently become very interested in the many different mushrooms that peek through or pop their heads out of the fallen leaves or that stand at attention on decaying logs in the forest. Today on a walk in the Delaware Water Gap, we came across a couple foraging and learned a little about what they found. I learned, for instance, that a toadstool is not a specific kind of mushroom, but a generic name for one.
I have much much more to learn about these forest creatures before I venture to eat one. A friend walking with us pointed to this mushroom as Amania bisporigera (or the Eastern North American Destroying Angel--yikes!), a fungus so toxic that it accounts many or most of the mushroom fatalities worldwide. Upon further investigation, I am no so sure that we classified it correctly. Most of this classification evidently are found growing on the forest floor (this one is on a log) and are found in the spring.
Nevertheless, I will surely not be eating anything looking like it in the near future.
6 comments:
I bought a book to learn about ediable plants in the wild, but still don't trust myself to eat anything. I wish I had a live body to teach me!
What an interesting shape. Glad you got a break!
I don't know a thing about mushrooms but they are such cool little things. So much to learn!
I have just recently taken an interest in wild mushrooms growing around us so this post was extra intriguing to me! Glad you enjoyed your blogging break. Sometimes it is just what we need to get refreshed. :)
What a beautiful photo. I've never seen a mushroom quite like that one. I love walking in the woods and looking for mushrooms in the fall--to photograph, not to eat ;- ).
I am not a forager, but just borrowed a book from the library and today (yeah) or field guide on mushrooms arrived in the post. Yesterday, my children and I took a long walk and discovered a plethora of mushrooms - don't know names of any. I took photos of some and will now use the new field guide to identify. It's so much fun. Of course, I would never eat any unless I had an experienced mushroom hunter with me.
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