Time for a Fungi Hunt!

Chers Amis,

We are still on a mushroom hunt chez nous - which is good because they are everywhere and provide wholesome - if not edible - entertainment. Did I mention that they are free? Always a plus. If clusters of yellow, tan and white are emerging under trees and compost piles around our mill, they are probably at your house too. A nature walk is in order. That's right, now, if it is dark then tomorrow. Really. Bring a magnifying glass, a notebook, a piece of wax or newspaper, and a metric ruler if possible. Now walk around the woody areas of your property, poke around under ferns or underbrush, look on old logs and the compost, flower pots and herb gardens are great and don't forget the lawn and under trees. Unless you live in a desert or Antarctica you will find at least one.

Now take a good look at the major parts, the cap, stipe/stalk and the underside or gills.
Measure the cap width, stalk height and width (in mm) and look for any distinguishing features. Is the top sticky? If you scratch it does it bruise or turn color? Does it smell like anything i.e. cucumber, almonds, fish etc. Does it have a strange shape or texture? Like jelly, slime, coral? If you decide to take it home to sketch, pull it up carefully and wrap loosely in paper paying attention to where you found it. Was it on the ground or on wood, on another mushroom? Make special note if it is under a specific kind of tree! Here is a list of features to notice:

Cap Shape bell, conical, convex, flat, knobbed, sunken
Cap Surface fibrous, grooves, scaly, smooth
Cap Colour brown, buff, cinnamon, gray, green, pink, purple, red, white, yellow
Bruises bruised, no
Odour almond, anise, creosote, fishy, foul, musty, none, pungent, spicy
Does it have gills or sponge-like pores?
Are the gills attached, descending, free, notched?
How are the gill spaced? close, crowded, distant
Gill Size broad, narrow
Gill Colour black, brown, buff, chocolate, gray, green, orange, pink, purple, red, white, yellow
What is the stalk shape? enlarging, tapering
Does it have a ring around the stalk? Does it seem to come out of an egg sac?

Take it home and make a good sketch - with color - and mark all the details. Don't forget to make a spore print. Here is a link to a nice fungi nature notebook page you can print out for younger children to ilustrate. The Audubon Field Guide to Mushrooms is excellent for identification but try finding it at Myco Key. This is a really FUN interactive fungi ID site. You click on different fungi shapes, colors, locations, and measurements and it gives you a list of possible genera ranked by probability and linked to photos and details on all the different species. It is quite neat. The girls had fun "making up" a fungus but clicking on crazy colors and configurations to see if they could find a fungus that fit their description. Try it. Mushrooms aren't like poison ivy - they don't make you itch or sick unless you EAT them, and unlike the bane of my existence, flying stinging insects, they won't land on you or swarm. They just sit there and wait to be discovered.

-- Marjorie