TEST

On weekend I visited forest near Cambridge (Ontario). The area is some 45 km North-West of my home. I was passing through really old hardwoods and area with mature spruce. Hardwoods The most spectacular was strong showing of clusters of Clitocybula oculus .  In my main field guide ( Mushrooms of Ontario and Eastern Canada ) the name is differently spelled, so there is some difficulty finding info on this mushroom. The main prize was my first find of the Hericium americanum. Excellent edible tasting very much like seafood (scallops). This mushroom loves old decayed logs. Some years I find them in great numbers. The one on the picture is very young and fresh, with pink overtones in the tips. It still did not develop relatively long "teeth", typical for this species. As an interesting find I will mention Geopora sepulta. Very handsome cup mushroom. I do not encounter it frequently. Coniferous Woods The first mushroom I noticed was chicken fat mushroom ( Suillus americanus ).

On August 22nd I was doing some work in Barrie Ontario. This is some 160 km from my home in north-east direction. I finished a little earlier than expected and on my way home visited one of the forests surrounding Barrie. As a general rule, more North you go in Ontario it is easier to find crown lands and regional forests that allow mushrooming. Barrie is surrounded with excellent mixture of forested areas. Some of them are natural and some were planted in the second half of 20th century. Planted areas are usually pines. The area I visited is situated north west of Barrie. And what a treat that was! The forest is mixed woods with hardwoods and conifers relatively evenly distributed. On the bases of my previous visits I expected to find some lobster mushropoms .  I did find couple, but the host species (Lactarius and Rusulla) were quite present, especially Lactifluus piperatus.   Therefore I expect in September much more of the lobsters around. During my short visit I found a great vari

Since nothing overly exciting is happening in deciduous woods I visited one of the young spruce grows. Later in the season this is the place to find some Lactarius species, blewits and puffballs. This time I found really beautiful specimens of earthstars ( Geastrum saccatum ) in different stages of development. This is not something I find regularly, so I thought it is wort mentioning. All the earthstars and bird nests mushrooms belong to puffball family and are quite widespread in Ontario, but not that common. I usually encounter them while visiting North York Regional Forest or Durham Regional Forest.

It is a common knowledge that mushrooms and rain go hand in hand, right? Well, this summer in Southwestern Ontario it does not seem to be the case. I did not check any official statistics but I am pretty sure that there was not a 3 day period without rain. After quite disappointing start of the summer with absence of any significant growth of chanterelles, I expected boletes, puffballs, rusullas and milky mushrooms (especially orange milky mushrooms) to make up for that. The reality is quite different. Up to this day puffballs are almost completely absent. I did not find a single giant puffball yet. Rusullas are rare and far between and therefore almost always attacked by slugs and bugs. As far as lactarius goes I did find several Lactarius volemus and handful of Lactarius hygrophoides,  but certainly not enough even for a single meal. Retiboletus ornatipes  is present in significantly smaller numbers than usual, but still enough to collect a decent meal if you really try. The one mush

This is my first post where all the images were taken with iPhone 6 S Plus. This phone with very decent camera made it easier to go around lagging less equipment in my pockets. Sarcodon is genus of fungi. It belongs to the tooth fungi and has quite a number of species worldwide. However in my area year after year I find only one species. The confusing part is that majority of sources and field guides for Eastern North America list Sarcodon imbricatus and Sarcodon scabrosus (two most common species of Sarcodon genus) as mycorrhizal  (this means that the fungus mycelium and the tree roots exchange nutrients to the mutual benefit of both organisms) with conifers. I never found a single Sarcodon mushroom under conifers. The only source mentioning that Sarcodon scabrosus partners with hardwoods too is Michael Kuo .  Therefore I think my finds should be identified as Sarcodon scabrosus. Common name for this mushroom is scaly hedgehog, although it is used for Sarcodon imbricatus too.  This mu