One of the things I just love about the Oregon coast is the plethora of fungi. This past week, my daughter and I attended a Fall Mushrooms class at the interpretive center. It was a fabulous class whereby we learned to not only identify many of the local species but we also learned which are edible.
We spent the first couple of hours in the classroom engaged in a lecture format whereby the instructor began with an introduction to basic mycology. He walked through the life cycle of mushrooms and as well as the anatomy of a mature mushroom.
He also shared a slide presentation of the species we were likely to see. With each photograph, he discussed the species’ habitat preferences (in other words, where they were most likely to be found) and the typical time of year they were most prominent.
We then took a short break and proceeded down the trail for our foraging excursion. We didn’t find too many in the first half mile or so of the trail. Those we did find had begun to decay so we were beginning to get a little discouraged. Perhaps we were too late in the season?
We didn’t give in however, and our perseverance paid off. The group had begun to spread out and cheerful exclamations of “I found Chantrelles!” or “Wow! Look at the size of these!” could be heard in the near distance.
Here is a list of just a few of the species we found:
- Hawk Wing
- Chantrelle (illustrated above)
- Velvet Bolete (illustrated above)
- Beef Steak (pictured at top)
- Pine Spike (illustrated above)
- Oysters
- False Chantrelle
- Lobsters
- Slippery Jack
- Blue Polyphore
- Coral
- Toadstool (toxic)
The author has thereby released a field companion All That the Rain Promises and More: A Hip Pocket Guide to Western Mushrooms.
~ ~ ~
We’ve always enjoyed taking part in the monthly challenges at Handbook of Nature Study. This month, our selected challenge was Make a List.