November 8, 2016

The weather roller-coaster is continuing in Southern Ontario. Days are very pleasant and occasionally outright hot. Nights are getting chilly with sporadic frost. Perfect conditions for Late Fall Oysters. Despite late date many logs have multiple bunches of small mushrooms. Unless deep freeze comes there will be Late Fall Oysters to pick for several more weeks.

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Tricholomas are showing up, mainly the gray varieties like Tricholoma myomyces and Tricholoma virgatum. They are not prolific and abundant as usual. I suspect the reason is too hot days. These mushrooms are really cold lovers and even enjoy frost. Generally I do not bother with any Tricholomas and do not eat them.


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The Brick Top (Hypoloma sublateritium) is quite common site. They love secluded places on the fallen trunks and blend very well into the colors of fallen leaves. I sometimes wander if  actually I am dealing with Hypoloma capnoides. As far as literature goes it is very hard to distinguish between two species in the field. Luckily they are both edible, so from the point of view  of average mushroom hunter it is irrelevant. On the other hand,  poisonous Sulfur Tuft (Hypoloma fasciculare)  is very yellow and seems to be much rarer than all the warnings in the guides suggest.


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At this time Blewitts seems to be hard to find, but if the weather conditions continue without deep frost I expect them to get a second wind.

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The great spectacle of bracket mushrooms is continuing. I am still stumped with several species that I did not identify, but beauty of them is undeniable.

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The Oyster mushroom is not around. It does show only in small bunches and rarely.  This year I did not find a single spectacular growth yet.

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I did find quite a number of Orange Mock Oyster (Phyllotopsis nidulans) Some of them are almost golden in color and very pretty.

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