TEST

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. 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. 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 ...

Some rainy days and over night temperatures in the low tens - started to feel like October.  The weather is perfect for Blewits and they are around with some slug damage, but bug infestation is minimal. This is a great time to enjoy fresh Blewits (cooked, of course). With some patience you can collect enough for drying or pickling. As October progresses there is more and more fallen leafs in deciduous wood, making it hard to spot even bright colored mushrooms. At this time I tend to concentrate mainly on the coniferous woods.   From now on the Tricholomas take over and show up in great fairy rings. Rings in coniferous woods are easily visible and quite impressive, but hard to catch in the photography. The most common one in this area is probably Tricholoma virgatum. I am not interested too much in Genus Tricholoma although some highly sought mushroom are found in it (e.g. Tricholoma magnivelare ). The grey Tricholomas are yet to show up. Various Suillus species are quite abundant...