Nature Walk – Name that Fungus!

Nature Walk – Name that Fungus! If you’ve been following “Late Bloomer” the last couple of weeks, you know I have fungi on the brain! (See my article “Fungi for Thanksgiving!”)

I’m drinking mushroom tea, eating mushrooms, I ordered mushroom immune defense supplements, and I even tried to get a grocer at my market to give me a garbage bag of stale portobellos today to throw on my garden.

Cup of Chaga mushroom tea

I took a nature walk in Northern California yesterday morning to search for mushrooms to photograph. A 200 acre old-growth eucalyptus and redwood forest in the Santa Cruz mountains with three miles of hiking trails is part of Chaminade Resort. 60′ trees provide a thick canopy over the canyon.

Forest trail through eucalyptus and redwoods

You are forewarned about the poison oak alongside the trails, and I’m very allergic, so photographing delicately detailed mushrooms in the dark canyon was quite a challenge. Here are just a few fungi I came across. Please help me identify them!

1. Fungi growing from a dead tree trunk

2. Grouping of fungi in brush

2b. Another grouping in brush

2c. Growing from dead wood

The darker the forest, the paler the mushrooms.

3. Small, round, pale, spotted fungi

4. Large, round, flat, jagged edges, brown fungus

5. Stunning, large, round, pale, with dark nipple center fungus

6. Large, round, wavy, dark center, pop-up stem, possibly same as 5.

7. Mycelium plainly visible with protruding flat caps on thin stems

8. Grouping of toadstool shaped fungi

The trail is accessible to the public, and and a local woman I walked with for a while told me that at one time Tibetan monks walked the trails. The serenity was temporarily broken by this sight.

The Villa, defaced with graffiti

The Villa was built in 1914, and at some points in the recent past was visited by vandals. I’ve never understood vandalism. Or littering.

Spent spray paint cans used for graffiti littered the side of trail near The Villa

Propane gas tank with peeling paint and graffiti

I turned the corner and spotted a lone wildflower.

Lilac wildflower finds a sliver of sun

My serenity was broken again as a group of noisy hikers came up behind me, and as it appeared that our pace was approximately the same with me stopping to take photos, I turned, let them pass and retraced my steps. I wanted to look for a group of fungi I had photographed with my phone the day before. I found them, but the sun hadn’t.

9. Spotted, large, shiny fungus

9. Same fungus the day before, in sun

9b. Shiny, spotted fungus, top

9b. Same fungus the day before in sun, with banana slug eating gills

9b. Same fungus showing where banana slug ate gills the day before

Fungi are so ephemeral. Some of this grouping were starting to turn black and disintegrate the day before, and were blacker and harder to spot the following day.

Forest floor with small creek – Picture of serenity

It’s such a blessing to be able to take a walk in nature. Take nothing (but photos) and leave only your footprints. No identification required, or wanted.

Graffiti on moss-covered tree

Nature spontaneously keeps us well.  Do not resist her!  –  Henry David Thoreau

Please leave a comment and help me name that fungus! And if you want to forage for mushrooms, read “Wild mushrooms: What to eat, what to avoid” – Mother Nature Network

Thanks for reading! – Kaye

Tags: biodiversity, Chaminade, do-it-yourself, farming on small scale, forest, fungi, gardening, gardening web series, green your world, growing your own vegetables, Kaye Kittrell, Kaye Kittrell Late Bloomer, Late Bloomer, mushrooms, nature, Photography, Plant photography, plants, Santa Cruz, urban gardening, walking, wild forest

Category: Fungi, Nature