Mushroom of the Month (MOM)
Learn a new mushroom or just refresh your memory! The M.O.M. page is a good source for background intel on mushrooms you may encounter in your wanderings.
Past Mushrooms of the Month
Inky Caps (by )
Mushroom of the Month: January, 2020
Basic Inky Cap ID for California
Out of the millions of different kinds of fungi out there, I think that Inky Caps are the coolest by far. They are called Inky Caps because they dissolve into black ink when they get old. They are also often misidentified, so I put together a list of the common Inky Caps and their differences. In general, there are four kinds of inky caps...
Mycophagy Challenge: Ten Edibles to find this Year (by Douglas Smith)
Mushroom of the Month: November, 2019
Editor’s note: This list pays homage to Douglas’ top ten favorites and serves as inspiration for collecting in the coming season. It was published in the "Duff", our FFSC newsletter in October of 2008 and has been brought back for old time members to enjoy again and for our new members who may just now be exploring the world of edible mushrooms. It is not a field guide...
Hygrocybe singeri, Western Witch's Hat (by Noah Siegel)
Mushroom of the Month: April, 2018
Hygrocybe singeri, Western Witch's Hat
Have you ever found a bright orange to red waxy cap, and brought it home only to find your once colorful mushroom was dingy black colored? You have found one of the blackening Hygrocybe, or the “Witch’s Hats”...
Galerina autumnalis, aka “The Deadly Galerina” (by Douglas Smith)
Mushroom of the Month: August, 2016
This month we take a look at a little brown job, that is dear to my heart but probably not to most of yours. Galerina autumnalis is a small brown job, growing on well rotten logs and stumps during wet months. And as a small brown job, why do people care at all here, since for most people those are the mushrooms you do best to ignore? This species has been shown to contain the same toxins as that of Amanita phalloides, a.k.a. “the Death Cap”. That species has been associated with the most cases of deadly poisonings around the world. But in the case of G. autumnalis since it is a LBJ (little brown job), it is rarely the case of mushroom poisonings, since who wants to eat LBJs anyway? But it comes up positive in tests for amanita-toxins, and in lists of poisonous mushrooms it always makes the cut. And people are always fascinated with deadly things, now, aren't they?
A Bolete by Any Other Name... (by )
Mushroom of the Month: June, 2016
As many of you know the mushroom world has been going through a lot of changes in recent years with the onset of genetic sequencing. One of the main impacts of this has been the renaming or reclassification of not only singular mushrooms, but in some instances whole genera (heck, Suillus got its own family!). It sometimes seems that just about every mushroom we see in our local woods now has a new name or spot in the myco tree of life. And one of our most prized groups of local mushrooms, the boletes, is no exception. With the recent publishing of scientific papers some of their names have changed as well. So let’s dive in at the first official wave of name changes to impact our beloved Boletus.