I had a fantastic weekend Camping at
Cooper's Rock State Forest in West Virginia. When we arrived to the camping area, the first thing I noticed was that there were mushrooms EVERYWHERE. Just from the car I could see spots of orange at the mossy foot of the many oaks, large brown and tan caps in the grass, and many little pops of red and yellow mingled with them all.
Upon inspection I found many Chanterelles (
Cantharellus lateritius), several species but mostly Bitter Boletes (
Tylopilus felleus), and abundant Russulas and Lactarius species.
I also found another Old Man of the Woods... and I take back all of my previous tasting compliments, it was appallingly bad tasting. A combination of moldly rot and dirt. Possibly, it was just past it's prime but it looked just like the last one I ate. I'll give this shroom one more try before I cast a final judgment.
As I was looking for a place to put the tent I wandered not 10 feet from my car and found a small patch of Black Trumpets (
Craterellus fallax), FINALLY! These little guys were so delicious with their bold meaty mushroomy flavor. There wasn't enough to bring home but I would have dried them for preservation. I'm dying to find more. These are usually found under oaks but it's very hard to distinguish them from the surrounding leaf litter unless you're right on top of them. I've heard they like runoff areas in the forest but I've had little luck with that tip. These were very small and I was a bit south of my home so I'm hoping they'll be popping here in abundance in the coming week.
My next find wasn't particularly rare but so far this season I've only found the Yellow Amanita (
Amanita muscaria var. guessowii). The Amanita muscaria (
Amanita muscaria var. flavivolvata in N. America) is arguably the most distinctive mushroom, being the inspiration for the Mario Bros favorite shroom. This one is listed as "dangerously poisonous" but it might just be a pretty good time if you know what you're doing (not personally recommended).
This little malformed pink
Russula (
Russula sanguinea?) has a second tiny cap growing upside-down on top of it, very odd.
Next to the Cooper's Rock visitor center parking lot there was a stump that was mostly covered with huge clumps of these large gorgeous orange mushrooms. I've never knowingly seen Jack O' Lanterns (
Omphalotus illudens) but I knew right away that these were no Chanterelles. Among other features, their fully formed and prominent true gills give them away. These would give you quite the bellyache and worse if you fried them up with your eggs.
So, I wanted to come back and photograph them at night but the gates close access to the area after dark. I plucked the one on the left in the picture and my daughter had orange hands by the time we made it back to the campsite (we washed right away, don't worry). I placed it at the foot of a tree away from the fire and anxiously waited for full dark, you see, Jack O' Lanterns are bioluminescent and I wanted to see just how bright this phenomena was. When it was full dark I ran over and allowed my eyes to adjust from the firelight, I peered at the foot of the tree where I knew the mushroom was and looked hard. I could actually see a very faint glow! It was just barely bright enough that I knew I was really seeing it. The next thing I did was grab my camera, tripod, and
intervalometer to capture this magic (mostly because my daughter and I were the only ones that could see it naked eye). I shot a 30 minute exposure of this thing and was floored when I saw this photo, take that Michael Kuo, I'm part of the conspiracy now!
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| Omphalotus illudens illuminated |
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