And the more I looked, the more I found! See the mushroom in this picture?
Here it is, by this bit of dead bark.
And I found more woodland beauties while shroomin'...anybody know what this is?
I tried a lookup, and I'm not sure but it may be fringed polygala before the flowers fully open, but I'm not certain.
UPDATE: When I went back later to look at these flowers, I found these. This would appear to be a violet....
....but it's spurred in the back of the flower, which is different from my other violets. Update #2: Okay, so when I finally realized the exact spot the first picture was actually taken in, this WAS fringed polygala unopened. Sorry!
And look at this funky fungus! After staring at pictures until my eyeballs hurt, I think it's either gyromitra leucoxantha or disciotis venosa , but I'm not 100%.
They just keep appearing before my eyes, so I can't stop looking (for about two hours), and I need to get other stuff done. But I love these things so much, I must keep hunting...
....now I'm pretty sure this is wintergreen , and it's all over in my wooded yard. I've tried to containerize it before, but it seems to resist taming. I'll give it a go again sometime, though.
As you can see from the overhead shot, these are pretty easy to miss, and after awhile I had to quit. But I ended up with seven of these babies, sauteed in butter...mmmmm!
The very next day, I stopped by a dear friends' house because she said there were some mushrooms for the taking...awesome!! This time, they appear to be greys , and they're bigger!
Another one...
...it's a little easier to spot these...see them?
Here they are, cute little group right out in the open, next to the driveway! How convenient! :)
Oooh! Big one here in the sand...
....and here they are! My friends are the best!! So I soak them for a little while to flush out any tiny bugs that may be hiding in the crevices, but save the water. It contains spore, so I take it and pour it out where I think they'll grow in my yard to encourage more for next year.
Yummy stuff folks!
...it's a little easier to spot these...see them?
Here they are, cute little group right out in the open, next to the driveway! How convenient! :) Oooh! Big one here in the sand...
....and here they are! My friends are the best!! So I soak them for a little while to flush out any tiny bugs that may be hiding in the crevices, but save the water. It contains spore, so I take it and pour it out where I think they'll grow in my yard to encourage more for next year. Yummy stuff folks!
15 comments:
Your mystery flower looks like a trillium: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trillium. That's very exciting you found so many morels! If you need recipe ideas, we just had a mushroom recipe contest and had a ton of morel recipes submitted. You can view the results of our contest at MarxFoods.com.
I wish I had a neighbor like you have. Morels are my favorite mushrooms. We knew some people when we lived in Iowa who 'hunted' them. Always gave us a bunch but never disclosed where they went to find them. I'm like you all they need is a little sauteing in butter.
This may seem ignorant, but: none of these are poisonous to kitties, are they?
Frollocking fungus Lisa, what a lot of mushrooms are growing near you.
I love eating mushrooms but have never picked them myself. We don't have so many here and it is not allowed to pick wild mushrooms either (against the law). Besides I would be too afraid in case I picked a poisonous one.
Yours look delicious, how are you gonna prepare them?
Emily-Thanks for the links! I'm confident that flower isn't a trillium though, the leaves are too different. I appreciate the recipe link, and I hope I find more so I can experiment. I just love them sauteed so much, I usually gobble them up without a thought for actual recipies. :)
Ki-Oh yea, my friends are the BEST! Mushroom spots are very much like fishing spots, people are very secretive and posessive about them (including me :)
Quasi-I doubt they'd be poisonous to kitties if humans can eat them, but to be honest I'm not sure. My cats never go outside, and I'm much too greedy with these to share! ;-)
Yolanda-Wow, I'm glad mushroom harvesting isn't illegal here! I usually just saute' them in butter, cuz' I want the full mushroom flavor experience. :)
We only had morels once in IL - a neighbor had taken down an elm tree a couple of seasons previously and we were told the deteriorating root area of an elm is perfect for these mushrooms. I don't know if there's any truth to that or if it's baloney but congrats on the mushrooms!
Your new plants look great- bald cypresses are so cool!
Annie at the Transplantable Rose
Annie-Yea, they seem to like rotting wood and pine needles, but I've found them under foliage on the forest floor near neither of those. I suppose animals step on these and track the spoor around, too. I'm hoping my cypress enjoys my riverbank and forms those famous "knees" eventually.
You are a lucky duck! Thanks for the "spore water" tip.
Love the mushrooms. And it's so true... it's easy to miss something, but then when you discern one, you can all of a sudden see many!
~ Monica
Lorika-My dad told me about saving the rinse water years ago, and if daddy sez' so, it must be true! :)
(I had actually read that later, too.)
Monica-Yea, it's almost like those goofy computer-generated pictures that you stare at, then an image appears out of nowhere. :)
Those look like sea sponges. What an amazing mass of them. Very thoughtful about the spore water--good luck.
I think that your purple flower is a Western Blue Violet (Viola adunca). Great fungus pics!
I did a lookup on that violet, and I think you're right! Thank you!
I was thinking Dog violet, Viola conspersa, but you may be right.
I had no idea that wintergreen looked so much like partridgeberry!
I'm envious of your morels. :)
Oh yea, that is spurred....seems like there are lots of violets out there! Wintergreen and partridgeberry both grow up here, I mix them up a lot. But the yummy mushrooms...no mistaking them! You could always buy some, they average about $17 per pound. ;-)
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