Toadstool Tuesday

NEMF Cape Cod

Good evening, friends,

This past weekend I attended the Northeastern Mycological Federation’s Sam Ristich Annual Foray in Hyannis, MA. My aunt was also celebrating her *0th birthday in Falmouth, about thirty minutes away, so I spent the weekend walking the tight rope that is neglecting family activities in search of mushrooms (happy birthday Aunt Julie, of course). While conditions have been dry in the northeast, the area received a couple inches of rain earlier in the week which spawned plenty of mushrooms to fill the ID tables.

The foray was held out of the Cape Cod Irish Village at the Emerald Resort (rolls off the tongue) which turned out to be the Ritz-Carlton of mushroom forays. The food was actually pretty solid and they even had a sit-down dinner on Saturday night. Staff were bussing the tables when we were done with plates and even going around with coffee after the meal. I was sipping decaf and taking in the keynotes, not bad at all.

I didn’t stay the nights, I had aunt birthdays to attend to of course, but I heard good thing about the room accommodations as well. All in all a great showing from the ol’ CCIVatER. Most importantly, I learned a bunch of new mushrooms, so now we can all learn a bunch of new mushrooms which is what it’s all about. Let’s take a look:

Shaggy bracket (Inonotus hispidus)

My first new mushroom of the weekend. I looked at these shelf mushrooms and thought they were ragged Resinous Polypores (Ischnoderma resinosum). Fortunately, Mical (an MM reader) identified this in the field. These were growing off a living oak and digesting the tree’s heartwood.

Buttery Collybia (Rhodocollybia butyracea)

Perhaps the most populous gilled mushroom of the weekend. These fairly nondescript mushrooms have a tawny, buttery smooth cap covering white gills that have jagged edges.

Conifercone Cap (Baeospora spp.)

These miniscule mushrooms were growing on the cones of a pitch pine (Pinus rigida). These pines can produce serotinous pine cones which means they’re covered in “pitch” (a thick resin that seals them). The pine cones rely on fire to melt the resin and release their seeds.

Sphagnum Brownie (Hypholoma elongatum?)

This is a speculative identification, but these dark-spored mushrooms were growing out of the sphagnum moss in an Atlantic White Cedar (Chamaecyparis thyoides) bog. They need the long stipes to rise above the sphagnum.

Yellowleg Bonnet (Mycena epipterygia)

These little bonnet mushrooms were also growing in sphagnum. The yellow on the stipe is the identifying characteristic.

Blood-red Cortinarius (Cortinarius sanguineus)

The photo doesn’t do the true color justice, but these were a deep shade of red - not the brownish orange you see here. Most Cortinarius form ectomycorrhizal relationships with plants. These were also found growing in sphagnum in the cedar bog.

Surprise webcap (Cortinarius semisanguineus)

This is called the surprise webcap because it has the deep, blood-red gills of C. sanguineus but a nondescript tan cap. This mushroom can be used for dyeing wool and other textiles.

Knights (Tricholoma spp.)

These chestnut-colored mushrooms might have been my favorite find of the weekend. We initially thought they were Cortinarius but upon closer examination look like Tricholoma. Matsutake (Tricholoma magnivelare) is a highly sought after edible.

Spicy Suillus (Suillus punctipes)

There were tons of Suillus, A genus of boletes that form mycorrhizal associations with pine trees. This was the most uncommon species I found and only saw it once all weekend. Interestingly, that white mycelial mass at the base of the mushroom turned salmon by the time we got back to the foray table.

Painted Suillus (Suillus spraguei)

A charismatic Suillus that grows with eastern white pine.

Puffball (Calvatia spp.)

Edible puffball growing out of sandy grass. Perhaps C. cyathiformis which has purple spores.

I caught a couple of the talks on Saturday as well. An impressive presentation on the lichen of Cape Cod by Tom Walker followed by an inspirational presentation on medicinal mushrooms by Cornelia Cho. I was a good boy and spent Sunday with the family so I didn’t catch the third day of the foray. Hope folks found Matsutake.

While I was out there I realized that Saturday was the four year to-the-day anniversary of Mushroom Monday. We’ve got over a thousand readers and have learned about nearly 200 individual mushrooms. What a journey. Here’s to another four? Hopefully. I left the foray very motivated and excited for the future of MM. I should have some exciting updates this winter :)

Full moon this Thursday - the largest of the year based on the moon’s proximity to earth,

Aubrey

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