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Brook

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Everything posted by Brook

  1. I have never seen one so I just checked my local 'mushroom club's database, no record of hens collected by them either... The only hardwood I would find around here would be in someones yard, perhaps I should start staking out the neighborhood?
  2. Pleurotus eryngii or the King Oyster (trumpet mushroom) is not native to north america.... but it sure has some similar features. http://www.visualphotos.com/photo/2x4392412/king_trumpet_mushrooms_pleurotus_eryngii_akf00108.jpg
  3. I have no idea what this is... looks like a white capped king oyster but I know they don't grow here... thinking it is some type of oyster? It's flesh is very dense/tough, but still pliable. I tried to get a spore print, left it for two days and nothing... Found growing on the ground, but there was also landscaping wood chips about as well. It was collected in Priddis, ab in a manicured patch of 'forest' between two fancy-schmancy estates. (Foothills of the rockymountains: pine, spruce, aspen, poplar) What do you guys think? If you look in this picture, one of the mushrooms has actually exploded somehow... Top view Close up of gills
  4. When I looked up pictures of Pholiota destruens they don't exactly match what I have found....because of that I am unsure of my ID? It keyed out as P. destruens from the characteristics - but mostly the fact that it was living on aspen. I did not notice any 'garlicky' odor... but they were pretty mature by then? Now I am looking through my guide and it could be Pholiota squarrosa or squarrosoides? Geesh, the descriptions all sound so similar!
  5. Thanks for that pic! I have seen many of those around as well! I went wrong at the button stage because of the veil... I see now the error of my ways! lol
  6. Need some help with this ID.... I think it is a Pholiota something or other? Pholiota destruens? The cluster is at the base of a living trembling aspen. Located in Pirddis, Ab (foothills of the rocky mountains) As you can see from the comparison with my hand (not small girly hands haha), the caps range from about 6-15cm in size. The cap has soft scales and is slightly moist velvety feeling, even though the weather was dry, but by no means was it slimy. Broke one open, the flesh is white to buff. Here is a closeup of the gills on an older specimen. Here are some young specimens compared to older ones, found in the same cluster. Here is a closeup of the stalk and veil Here is a picture that shows the spore print on the lower mushroom shown here (would you call that cinnamon?) that has fallen from the mushroom above it....also managed to catch a glimpse of a wood nymph in the background hehe
  7. WOW - thanks for the great and thorough reply! My local 'mushroom club' haha has an online database of all specimens (and locations shown in maps) that have been collected on their forays. I have used it to double check my IDs, and to see if some choice edibles grow in Alberta. The list is very extensive, so I am not sure I would want to print it off, but I will keep your suggestions in mind! http://wildmushrooms.ws/shrooms/ I really like the thought of more detailed 'look-a-like' conversations in Audubon... Mushrooms demystified has a bit... but it sounds like Auddubon may be more thorough. I have noticed the species listed in demystified weigh heavily towards the very west coast. This is why I am looking for supplement information more specific to my hunting grounds. (Alberta & interior BC, Rocky Mountains, Boreale forest etc.) I live in a funny spot in Canada, and we have very different weather patterns that make a climate NOTHING like the west coast(ever heard of a chinook...?) So I was hoping a more specialized guide would pick up more species common to my area....thus why I checked out what the local mushroom club uses. I like the thought of supplementing my guide with additional stuff I have printed off for myself.... but oh my - doesn't that get messy tucking pages into your guide? Hmmm...must think on this, perhaps use an old daytimer that I can add or remove pages from....hmmmm...... My REAL interest in mushrooms.... well I guess in the end I want a free delicious dinner... but I do not cast away specimens simply because I don't think they are edible. I enjoy trying to ID them, I find it a challenging and rewarding hobby. I also love walking through the forest looking for them... so sometimes I even hunt when there is no rain.... or is that called hiking? haha So I don't think I want to purchase an edible mushroom book... I would find that limiting. Looks like I should give Audubon a try.... then perhaps the western canada one? More research is required I think LOL. Thanks again for the feedback guys! (oh, anyone have an i-phone? My GF showed me a free app on hers for the Audubon society for mushroom ID... very cool! Too bad I only have a blackberry lol.)
  8. Well it seems my description (to myself) of the veil was a bit off.... I thought it looked 'hairy'(chroogomphus)... when I should of thought it looked like 'cobweb'(Cortinarius).....?? THIS is why I like this hobby so much.... very challenging! It will be YEARS before I am an expert... so it is tough to get bored! hahaha Love this site! Thanks guys!
  9. Well I have been wrong before!!! LOL I do not have much practice with Cortinarius... so I have no rebuttle! haha I went in my files to see if I got a better pic of the gills, no luck - but I think I remember the gills running down the stalk...The specimens pictured above were very young still. But it DOES look like the gills are in fact NOT running down the stalk! Have I gone astray.....?
  10. These are pretty common, but I haven't found them in great numbers... I also haven't sought them out either. I have not tried eating them yet because Arora says that they are better dried, and to be honest I have never found a large enough quantity of any edible that I needed to dry them...so I do not have a dehydrator.... I guess I could try the popcorn string method? Anyone have success with that? Anyway, these are a 'pine spike' I am pretty sure, but I do not have the ID to species. Didn't take a spore print either....was camping with a baby (need I say more?) haha I want to become more familiar with this family because they are so common.... just need a good way to preserve them first. I should just fork out the cash and get a dehydrator... just things are tight when on mat. leave haha What do you all think of the edibility of Chroogomphus...?
  11. I am really interested this topic... how are your logs doing??? I want to try this one day!
  12. I have heard that 'Mushrooms of Western Canada' is really good, but it is illustrations, not photos.... what does everyone think of trying to ID from an illustration? I am not sure I trust it as much?
  13. Can you post this link? I was under the impression they were safe? I eat them... or they could be L. Boreale, which is identified by my local Mycological society as our "provincial mushroom".... looks just like L. insigne to me. http://www.wildmushrooms.ws/c/document_library/get_file?uuid=b94bbc7e-8916-4d79-bc1c-94f7929076e7&groupId=10128
  14. What is your favorite mushroom field guide??? I am looking to expand on my Mushroom Books, and I am not sure which ones I should get first, or if I even need them? I currently have 'All the Rain Promises...' and 'Mushrooms Demystified'... which I am sure you are all familiar with. My local Mycological Society uses several reference books in addition to the ones I own, they are listed on their website, and the books I might be interested in are as follows; ~ Mushrooms of Western Canada - Helene M. E Schalkwyk ~ Mushrooms of the boreal forest - Eugene F Bossenmaier ~ National Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Mushrooms ~ Mushrooms of North America - Roger Phillips Does anyone have any experience with any of these books? I live in Alberta (Calgary) so I am close to the Rocky Mountains, so if you know of any books great for my area (west) that are not on the above list, please feel free to suggest it!!! ...Also saw this book on Amazon and I am thinking about purchasing it: Field Guide to North American Truffles: Hunting, Identifying, and Enjoying the World's Most Prized Fungi Matt Trappe (Author), Frank Evans (Author), James M. Trappe (Author)
  15. ladyflyfsh, I thought I had resized all my pics to be under 300KB so I could get them all in? Or were you just talking about the pictures in general on this site? I spent a fair bit of time fixing all of them so if it didn't work, please let me know! lol Have fun hunting!
  16. Dave: Ya I looked at the Hawk's wing when trying to ID... that is what I was hoping for actually haha! On this trip I managed to collect three types of Yellow Capped Russulas... the ones you see pictured above are Russula lutea. These are a widespread edible in Alberta that are fairly easy to identify. They are not the best edible, but make good filler if your basket is a bit light for dinner. When I go hunting, I usually have my husband & daughter in tow... or a friend. They point out the shrooms for me or just pick what looks like I told them is OK. It works out good for me because it keeps you sharp in making your identifications. The outer shrooms are the lutea, then the middle three; there are two slimy looking ones, along with the more golden colored cap. Lutea are never slimy like that, so I knew they were different...and the other, well it smelled horribly of rotten fish. I think the stinky one belongs to either the Russula subnigricans group, or Russula sororia group??? I didn't waste a bunch of time on it - it stunk and I wanted it out of the garage! lol The slimy ones I am unsure, as I did not have a mature specimen to look at, I did not lose any sleep over it. Anyone want to take a stab? The three in the middle did stain very slightly, and it happened very slowly. Gills light colored (yellowish / creamish / whitish hahaha)
  17. Goodness! I think you have it! Sarcodon scabrosus Awesome! Thanks for that! I am going to check to see if this is in my guide, and if it is... where I went wrong lol
  18. It was after this when I found yet ANOTHER tooth fungus. This one was pretty big, multi-lobed, and smelled (strongly) like CURRY! Well when I got them all home, I decided to complete my identifications. The light colored ones were a dead give away, and I felt confident in eating them! Next was on to the large multi-lobed curry smelling specimen... and darn it all to heck, I just can’t seem to key it out properly! Oh, well – I just took VERY detailed pictures, and set it up to obtain a spore print (result: cinnamon). I could work on my ID during the winter because I did not intend to eat it regardless of the ID because it had worms. (Let me know if you would like to see the more detailed pics, and I will post) Then I got to work on the smaller brown toothed “hedgehogs”... I cleaned them up, discarded a few with worms, and laid them nicely on my work bench in the garage. I grabbed my book and went to work keying them out... it did not take me long to get to the instructions to “chew a small piece of the cap”.... oh my, it was SOOOO bitter, clearly inedible!!!! Awe, my poor heart sank with disappointment! I still tried to key it out, but none of the species in my guide seemed to EXACTLY match my specimens. You can’t really see it from the picture but the young specimens have a light purpley color to the cap & stalks. Any ideas? It must have been the right conditions for toothed fungus, as this was the same trip that I also discovered a ‘Fragrant Hydnellum’ outlined in my previous post here: So I cooked up the edibles I found, along with some stuffed zucchini flowers from my garden to go with brook trout for dinner, thus concluding my bittersweet hedgehog story.
  19. Story to be continued... my picture uploads are no longer working??? (it says Error: This upload failed) I will try again later..... (Not sure what the problem is but - no, they are not too big in size) .... okay, darn thing still isn't working, but I have a solution! .... conclusion forthcoming ....
  20. Well it has been warm lately and very, very dry..... today there is the chill of fall in the air and grey clouds filling the sky.... and being one of the few who wish for rain here and there, I have visions of fall mushroom hunting in my future! Since there is not much point to go hunting, I thought I would share my bittersweet hedgehog story: I have read about many more species of mushrooms than I have collected myself, so when I saw my first hedgehog mushroom, I immediately knew what it was, and that it was considered a choice edible! I only found a couple of small specimens, however it was enough to cook up a sample to see if I liked them! Then I came across this mushroom: When I picked it... low and behold, the underside of the cap had teeth! Was this another kind of hedgehog that I could fry up when I got home??? My excitement grew as I found several, nice meaty specimens that were maggot free!
  21. I have never found one myself.... but there is not much for hardwood around my parts... aren't mushroom hunters mysterious? LOL Hope you find one...or several!!!
  22. Thanks for the tips! I hadn't thought of the aspect, and i believe the area is on the west side of a mountain. I am also glad to hear that rain is not critical initially - and that I can return to the area in later months after a good rain to look for more!
  23. The area is a 1.5 hr drive from my house.... so not great for monitoring soil temps myself, but I would be willing to make a trip a week if it would help my chances....
  24. sorry, I should have given more info.... the burn is 700 ha in size located in the rocky mountains (lower mountain elevations) the forest is: white spruce, trembling aspen, lodgepole pine, cottonwood poplar.... morels should grow there... I can't find any data on soil temperature for this region.....
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