Lobster mushrooms.

Hypomyces lactifluorum

They are actually a parasitic fungus that grows on another mushroom. Around here they grow on a species of s Russula (Russula brevipes). They are easy to identify, but they are almost always really filthy and often full of beetles or maggots. After you clean them, you can dry them to use later, or you can saute them and freeze for later if you have more than you want to eat right now.

They are huge. Sorry I didn't put something in this picture for scale, but that piece of paper they're on is bigger than a large cookie sheet.

One of the best exercises to do for paddling is... paddling.

Did that today for three hours.

I love the mushroom pics! I'm just learning about them myself and so far have only dared to eat chanterelles.

Found these choice Hen-of-the-Woods (also known as Maitake) earlier this Fall. I'm still very green at wild mushroom collection so I didn't harvest them at the time. With further research I found there are no lookalikes and allergic reactions are rare.

Those are walnuts on the ground around them (about the size of a tennis ball) for size although the mushrooms are at the base of oak trees. Each mass is probably 5-10 lbs (2.5-4.5 kg) so 30-ish lbs (15-ish kg)total. I'll probably harvest them next year as they do tend to reoccur at the same spot one year to the next. Been boning up on cleaning, cooking, and preserving methods.




Also found a what I think is a Turkey Tail buried in the bremuda grass. Not considered edible but is thought to have cancer fighting chemicals.

mtaratoot wrote: »

@d_thomas02

That bottom picture looks like a Ganoderma. They grow on wood. Like turkey tails, they are polypore mushrooms. One species of Ganoderma is known as Reshi, and it is used as medicine. Another one is called Artist's Conk, and it has really interesting characteristics.

After more research, I think you are right. Size alone would rule out Turkey Tail. Turkey Tails are two, maybe three inches across and thin. This specimen was larger than my hand.

mtaratoot wrote: »

Turkey tails grow on wood, too. They are considered "edible," as in they aren't poisonous, but not particularly tasty and tough, tough, tough. I found a couple nice Ganoderma on a foray a couple years ago before COVID when we could go spend time together.... I gave the Reishi to someone who was going to make medicine out of it. We had fun drawing on the artist conk.

While I was working today, had the chance to dump leaves on-site in a wooded area. Kept my eyes open and found this on a dead snag, maybe oak.

Old, faded, and dried out but still recognizable as Turkey Tails (Trametes versicolor). And the right size too. The ones at eye level are about the size of my thumbnail. Lower on the tree, near the base where there may have been more moisture available while they were growing, they were three times larger.

I collected a few specimens to take home. You can see the pores on the underside.

Just above head level I found several False Turkey Tails (Stereum ostrea) also faded and dried. (The name ostrea, from the word 'oyster', describes its shape.)

Still a polypore but the pores so small, the underside appears smooth.


While the Turkey Tails are too tough to eat, they can be simmered (not hard boiled) for 30 to 120 minutes to extract their medicinal compounds. Turkey Tail tea is suppose to be somewhat bitter but less so than Reishi tea. Other non-water soluble medicinal compounds can be extracted with 100 proof vodka.

mtaratoot wrote: »

And now your quiz. Can you identify this mushroom?

Is it the Gypsy mushroom (Cortinarius caperatus)?

We almost brought it home, but instead hung it up in a tree so it could disperse its spores over a larger area. We'll go back next year. I've only been mushrooming for about 20 years or so, so I still have a LOT to learn. I did get to go pass on some knowledge about how to ID candy caps with another friend who has good luck with boletes. I wish I was better at finding those. They are SO delicious.

Strange Christmas weather we are having this year.

Usually we are cold, sometimes bitterly so. Ice stroms are not unheard of. Rarely we'll even have a white Christmas.

We've been consistently in the mid-60s to the mid-70s F (20 to 25-ish C) all week with more unseasonably warm weather the next few days.

On Christmas day, after the excitement faded, I went out in the late afternoon and looked for winter mushrooms thinking Oysters and Lion's Mane might be found after the rains we've had and now this unseasonably warm weather.

160 acres in the middle of the Ozark Plateau to search with wooded hills, hollows, springs, and creeks.

And it was a great day for a 90 minute hike through the woods, off trail and sliding though dry leaves on top of loose gravel scree down steep slopes into bramble filled hollows. I worked up a sweat with my 26 year old son and 13 year old niece. Truely, it was fun.

No harvestable mushrooms, sad to say (too dry despite the rain a few days back), but the niece was thrilled to gleen an armadillo pelvis with spine that we found. (Found the armor shell too but it stayed in the woods.) She is more than a bit of a nature nut.

We did find tons of dehydrated Turkey Tails and False Turkey Tails, one stump with Reishi way past their prime, and what I'm pretty sure were small half rotten Artist's conk. Saw one small example of what I think were Oyster mushrooms but very small. They didn't really get large enough to identify 100% before they dried out but even though they looked somewhat like bleached out Turkey Tails, they had what looked like decurrent gills.

A bit of a dissapointment mushroom wise, by still good times. (No photos, sorry.)

Well @d_thomas02 I think we got your snow. It's kind of rare for us, but we got about three inches overnight with three more forecast for today and a bit more over the next 48 hours. Tomorrow there should be enough on the street/sidewalk to go ski. I could probably go today, and maybe I will. First... more coffee.



Hummingbirds are happy to have liquid nectar in the feeder, and the songbirds are going to town on suet, oil seeds, and a nice warm bath. They are knocking all the snow off the bushes.