Les

latin names: Parasola leiocephala, Parasola plicatilis

These are parasola species mushrooms, and they're some of the most underrated mushrooms in my opinion. They're awesome; tiny, transparent, ghostly little things. Two parasola species are pictued in this post, and they're ones that i've gotten severely mixed up in the past, though i think i've got it figured out now.

The larger one is Parasola plicatilis, a.k.a. the "Pleated Inkcap". It grows in wet grass and leaf litter, and can grow barely up to your ankles. It sprouts overnight when it rains, and disintegrates by late afternoon the next day.

The smaller one (seriously it is SO small) is something i've always enjoyed finding when walking through wet grass. I previously believed it to be the Pleated Inkcap but new research suggests that its wayyy too small for that. I think it's parasola leiocephala, and i've affectionately nicknamed it the Umbrella Mushroom. So called because it grows overnight when it rains and is just about the same size as a blade of grass. It's like a blade of grass is growing itself an umbrella. Similar to plicatilis, it also disintegrates under the weight of its cap by late afternoon.

Some much better pictures of these can be found online, and once you know what they look like I implore you to begin scanning the ground when you walk through wet grass, because you're likely to see a little transparent, ghostly mushroom peeking through the grass.

latin name: Fistulina Hepatica

This guy!!! Love this guy!!! He's the first edible fungi I ever ate and he tastes like shit. Awful texture, equally bad taste, like if sour old fruit was a mushroom. But it looks super cool! These pictures are of rather young specimens, but this mushroom looks fascinating through its entire growth cycle. When young, it looks like you can see in these pictures. Squishy, a very nice red colour, and excretes this sticky red liquid that looks pretty much exactly like blood. If you were to cut it, it would bleed a lot of this, and you'd also see some white "marbling" that looks exactly like really good beef. The most incredible thing about this fungus is how similar it looks to beef; really its a shame that it doesn't taste as good, too.

Older specimens maintain this beefy look, and become tougher and, i guess, a little more like beef jerky. Very old, decomposing specimens become darker and floppy, very similar to a cow's tongue. Hence, the name "Ox Tongue"!

I actually took these pictures of the exact same tree where I first found this mushroom, last year! I might share some pictures of that find, alongside what it looks like when cut/cooked.

latin name: Xerocomellus chrysenteron

I went on my first mushroom-focused forest walk of the year today, and found a bunch of cool stuff! I'll be posting it through the week, and then next week i'll head out to the forest and do it all over again.

This is the red-cracked bolete (I THINK! I AM NOT 100% ON PRACTICALLY ANY OF MY IDENTIFICATIONS!) If you look up this mushroom, you'll find similar-looking pictures except the mushroom is much larger and has visible cracks and roughness across its cap. There were TONS of those near where i took these pictures, but I decided to snap only the young, pretty specemins because beauty is more important than accuracy. Anyway these mushrooms are edible, but people tend not to like them because they get squishy when they mature. Also, they mainly grow near water so they can get suuuper squishy. If you find one with good texture, they apparantly taste almost identical to the penny bun, a.k.a. the cep. I found at least 50 of these, mostly old and falling apart, in a very shaded area right next to a lake. Perfect mushroom conditions, so not that surprising to see a huge outbreak.