Sunday, October 18, 2015

Mushrooms are Popping!

Must be the rain we've had. More than I'm used to seeing here in Cuyamaca Woods and surroundings...

These photogenic fungi were too much to resist, so I got the camera and drove back down the road to the area near the entrance to Camp Winacka on Boulder Creek Road (after making an earlier foray into Julian). MAYBE Leucoagaricus americanus? According to Mykoweb, an excellent resource for identifying Californica mushrooms, that species is common in the midwest and east, but rare here, and usually associated with wood chips around suburban areas. This photo was taken with available light and the tripod (at 1/10 second and ISO 100).

Another nice cluster.

Some mature ones.

A young one...crying out to be photographed!

Large white mushroom (tbd). This was one of about 8 -10 that were growing along the side of the road near the corner of Sandy Creek Road and Mountain Meadow Road.

This one (also along Mountain Meadow Road just down from our house) will look impressive when it opens up, I suspect. It's about 4 inches tall now.

2 comments:

  1. Once again, beautiful pictures, great information. Robyn, I am curious. Are any of these mushrooms edible?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Those top ones, if Leucoagaricus americanus (which the Facebook mushroom ID folks think they are), then they are edible. And the big white ones might be – BUT, there is a FATALLY toxic one called the Destroying Angel, which looks a little like the last one here, which could be found hereabouts. I would never eat ‘em if not checked out by a true mushroom expert (or as they say, “There are old mushroom eaters and bold mushroom eaters, but there are no old, BOLD mushroom eaters”) ; )

    ReplyDelete