The End of Summer

The end of Summer is here, at least according to calendar. The weather forecasts for South-Western Ontario still includes humidex and daily highs are in low 30°C range. Overnight low gets to 15°C, quite a bit above seasonal.  In general, the dry weather trend is continuing.


The main bolete season is over and woods are starting to turn into brown and red shades. At this time I would expect Blewitts, Puffballs and Honey mushrooms to be present, but none of that is happening in my area.


After several checks in week intervals I did harvest some Hericium americanum, excellent edible and medicinal mushrooms. This mushroom is supposedly creating chemical compounds that actually stimulate nerve growth and regeneration. It is certainly not hard to spot, although quite frequently grows at the lower portion of the logs and can be seen only from certain angle.


dscn6142 dscn6143 dscn6145


The older specimens I usually dry and use in soup. The young ones I prefer to eat sauteed or in some kind of vegetable meal. They taste lake sea food, and almost can be mistaken for scallops.


The bracket fungi are always present and I encountered some really beautiful patches.




[caption id="attachment_2820" align="alignnone" width="663"]dscn6226 Bay-Brown Polypore (Polyporus badius)[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_2821" align="alignnone" width="663"]100_0086 Turkey Tail (Trametes versicolor)[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_2822" align="alignnone" width="663"]100_0064 Maybe Inonotus radiatus??[/caption]

 Unusually strong showing of Rooting Polypora (Polyporus radicatus)


img_20160909_084151


There was also some considerable fruiting of Golden Coral (Ramaria aurea), beautiful mushroom, fragile  and hard to pick. On the other hand Crow Coral, the one most commonly found, was almost completely absent or showed only in small bunches.




[caption id="attachment_2826" align="alignnone" width="663"]dscn6212 Golden Coral (Ramaria aurea)[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_2829" align="alignnone" width="663"]dsc05291 Crown Coral (Clavicorna pixidata)[/caption]

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