This fall has been unusually wet for us in the Texas Hill Country. We’re going on our 4th week of showers. Our hot 90 + degree weather has nicely evened out in the low 80’s and the plants that didn’t get much of a chance to flourish in the summer due to our unusually dry spring are now making up for lost time. Everything is green and pretty. The extended moisture and warm temperatures are also bringing with them a host of interesting mushrooms almost everywhere you look.
The mushroom is much maligned. As children we are taught to not touch them and definitely do not eat them. There are only about 70 to 80 species of fatally poisonous mushrooms, but a lot of them look a lot like ones that aren’t poisonous, so if you are going to forage for mushrooms you have to know exactly what you are looking for. However it isn’t going to hurt you to look for mushrooms, just don’t put them in your mouth or smell them. Don’t let this scare you into not taking the time to appreciate them visually. These organisms can be useful, beautiful, weird and extremely interesting.
The mushroom is the fruit of fungi. The fungi live in soil (or in their food source: wood, leaves, etc. ). When a mushroom sprouts up, it will then spread its spores out into the air and surrounding ground. Most of the spores will die, but some will land in an area where there is nutrients and they will become fungi in the soil thus starting the process all over.
Some basic mushroom anatomy. The cap is known as the pilious and the stalk, the stipe. Mushrooms are typically either gilled or polyporous. Most mushrooms have gills. Polyporous mushrooms have pores or little tubes. (see picture below).
Here are some links to more information on mushrooms:
- Wikipedia – Mushroom
- North American Mycology Association
- Mushroom Observer
- Mushroom Expert
- The Bolete Filter
- Mushroom Appreciation
Here are is a fun gallery of some of the mushrooms I’ve seen this fall. Enjoy!