...for fungus!! I can't help it. I'm fascinated by mushrooms! And, really, who isn't?! Eating them is beside the point. It's about the sizes, shapes and colors. So many kinds! The fact that they are performing a necessary decomposition function is just frosting on the cake for me. I don't actually know too much about them, so to me they are among the great Mysteries of the Nature! Wild and unpredictable! They pop up randomly and no one can tell exactly which ones will be where. No one. I have a few mushroom guides, but they're nearly useless for identification because there are too many and and too variable within type.
Every year at this time, I wander about with my head down looking for them in the yard and in the neighborhood, especially on my morning walks. They gradually emerge from under the layers and layers of leaves and pine needles about now. It's rained a few times, recently, and the ground is still warm enough, so last week, I began to see them.
This year, there's a particularly nice display on the side of an black oak near the house called Sulphur Shelf mushrooms. I haven't yet found a name to put on the tall cup-shaped brown ones in the redbud pot--or the rest of them on this page, for that matter. I think the yellowish half-dollar-sized ones on the side of the road, right now, are called "Velvet Foot" (no photo--love the name), but I can't identify the teensy white I ones I found near them. Each cap is no bigger around than a pencil eraser, the stems like thread.
Who are those folks who, for whatever reason, are charged with giving mushrooms their common names (as opposed to the botanical ones)? They must be fun at a party. Here are some of the good ones: Bleeding Milk Cup, Poor Man's Slipper Jack (is there one for rich men?), and Burgundy Bruising Coral Fungus. There's also Deceptive Blistered Skin Mushroom (a little sneaky?) and Questionable Stropharia (someone needs to make a decision there--is it or isn't it?). My favorite might be Dog Vomit Slime Mold.
In other outdoor news, I planted a couple more trees today (California natives, buckeye and madrone) and a native shrub called matillija poppy. I also got some wildflower seeds in the ground. Tomorrow, the tomatoes come out (having frozen many times, now) and I'll stake the peas...all the while, keeping an eye on the dead leaves to see if there's a fancy 'shroom lurking beneath...
Next...the ABCs.
