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Locally scarce mushrooms


alatos

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I've been mushroom hunting pretty frequently for about three seasons now in southeastern PA. I've had pretty good luck with a good variety of mushrooms, but there are some that I "should" be seeing that I just don't find. For one, lobster mushrooms. Never seen a single one in three years. Another is black trumpets. I have found some small flushes of these, but not like many mushroom hunters seem to experience. Not complaining, because I do find good numbers of chanterelles, morels, chicken, maitake, honeys, and other delicious edibles. 

Are there any species that you all find very rare or absent from your area? 

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For me I find good variety but there are only a few mushrooms that I find in large amounts. Hedgehogs are one that I would  love to find more and have only found twice. Black trumpets,Honey's,oysters,chants and Hens,when they show up I have good collections. 

We have alot of Lactarious and russula but I have never found a lobster mushroom either .

 

 

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8 hours ago, MattVa said:

For me I find good variety but there are only a few mushrooms that I find in large amounts. Hedgehogs are one that I would  love to find more and have only found twice. Black trumpets,Honey's,oysters,chants and Hens,when they show up I have good collections. 

We have alot of Lactarious and russula but I have never found a lobster mushroom either .

 

 

Hedgehogs are another rare one... I found one maybe the second time ever mushroom hunting and left it because I didn't know what it was!

2 hours ago, troutddicted said:

I'll give you my lobsters for your hens and chickens!

Deal.

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My first hedgehog was a single and I left it too. Don't find a ton of lion's mane either but I have found a few. King boletes are hit and miss most of what I find are the types that associate with oaks and never large amounts like some people find.

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In the 1 mile range outside my front door (I live in a preserve area in northern lake county, IL) (and in season) there are always Pheasants, Chickens, Honeys (ringless), Hens, Puffballs, Oysters, Shaggy Manes, Meadows, and Blewits.  There are plenty of medicinal/useful and spontaneously edible/useful or non-edible/toxic that happen to show up right outside the door that i automatically post here for ID. C. Rahcodes, Trametes Versicolor,  The recent "others" like Plutues sp., mycena sp., Xylaria sp., Garlerina sp., Amanita,  Sebacina (maybe), Urnula, Omphalotus Illudens, Hortiboletus sp., Pycnoporus, Polyporus Radicatus, etc... The real Boletes are scarce and hard to ID, the russulas are even rarer (when I find ghost pipes I make myself nuts). That's like, take the dog out the front door in sandals and walk a mile or two.  No real travel needed.

....Guess what's missing from the range there? Morels. Chanterelles/Trumpets. Never. I always have to travel 15-20 miles for those choice edibles.

My woods are mostly choke cherry, white/red oak, shagbark hickory, boxelder. The rare sugar maple, birch or any kind of pinus species.  Ground cover is in spring trout lily (completely), then over time solomon's seal/false, enchanter's nightshade, the usual edible herbs like wild lettuce/dock/sorrel/sonchus/lambsquarters/dandelion/violet/plantain. It's a lot of oak basically so in September I have more Hens than I know what to do with but in spring there's a frustratligly rare amount of morels... and chanterelles are basically non-existant in a world of jack-o-lanterns.

TL/DR "Why can't I have morels and chanterelles in my back yard!?"

 

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1 hour ago, MattVa said:

Adawg maybe we are at the wrong elevation....no idea really. We certainly have enough russula/lactarious type(wrong types?) to be parasitized.

Same here but no lobsters. We have mostly oak timber but a lot of large pines too. 900 ft elevation I think.

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  • 3 weeks later...
On 8/13/2018 at 11:36 PM, BastedBrew said:

In the 1 mile range outside my front door (I live in a preserve area in northern lake county, IL) (and in season) there are always Pheasants, Chickens, Honeys (ringless), Hens, Puffballs, Oysters, Shaggy Manes, Meadows, and Blewits.  There are plenty of medicinal/useful and spontaneously edible/useful or non-edible/toxic that happen to show up right outside the door that i automatically post here for ID. C. Rahcodes, Trametes Versicolor,  The recent "others" like Plutues sp., mycena sp., Xylaria sp., Garlerina sp., Amanita,  Sebacina (maybe), Urnula, Omphalotus Illudens, Hortiboletus sp., Pycnoporus, Polyporus Radicatus, etc... The real Boletes are scarce and hard to ID, the russulas are even rarer (when I find ghost pipes I make myself nuts). That's like, take the dog out the front door in sandals and walk a mile or two.  No real travel needed.

....Guess what's missing from the range there? Morels. Chanterelles/Trumpets. Never. I always have to travel 15-20 miles for those choice edibles.

My woods are mostly choke cherry, white/red oak, shagbark hickory, boxelder. The rare sugar maple, birch or any kind of pinus species.  Ground cover is in spring trout lily (completely), then over time solomon's seal/false, enchanter's nightshade, the usual edible herbs like wild lettuce/dock/sorrel/sonchus/lambsquarters/dandelion/violet/plantain. It's a lot of oak basically so in September I have more Hens than I know what to do with but in spring there's a frustratligly rare amount of morels... and chanterelles are basically non-existant in a world of jack-o-lanterns.

TL/DR "Why can't I have morels and chanterelles in my back yard!?"

 

BastedBrew, I feel your pain. I live in northern Illinois as well and used to look and look and look for years for morels until I moved within walking distance of a large wooded area. This spring was my first morel find. 19 yellows. I do wish I had your "problem" of so many hens though. Those ones elude me to frustration, and we have so many oaks around here. Rockford's nickname is the "Forest City". I too see so many Jack o lanterns and every time I stop to check them out hoping they are chickens but almost every time I am disappointed. I find what I think to be Oysters quite often but I am not comfortable IDing those yet, though I an eager to do so because the ones from the store taste so good.

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On 9/11/2018 at 8:51 AM, BastedBrew said:

Well about a week after posting that I found a flush of yellow chanterelles that just keeps producing about 1/4 mile from my front door... heheh 

now I just need to locate a morel patch that’s reliable and guard it with my life :)

That is encouraging to hear that chantrelles are being found in NI. I have yet to see one but I will keep my eyes peeled. I have a close friend who grew up in Dekalb, and hour away from where he currently lives. He used to find morels in a public park when he was a kid. At the time I worked in Dekalb. Even though he had no plans to go back and look for morels in Dekalb he STILL refused to tell me the park where he used to find them! He will probably take his good spots to the grave with him!

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