Burnt salal

Salal is an evergreen native of our rainforests. It likes shade, water, acid soil, cool weather. Under a dense canopy of coniferous trees, it makes tall, almost impenetrable thickets.

But in the open, dry forest around Oyster Bay, it hugs the ground and burns when the sun is bright, turning red, then a deep purplish-blue.

Three pale gilled mushrooms and sun-blistered salal. The mushrooms are about 3 inches tall, judging by the spikes of lichen.

In deep forests, the berries are edible and delicious, but out here in the open, very few are produced, and those are usually dry and bland. I picked a couple of clumps this summer, tasted two, and threw the rest away. They're better left for seed.

UPDATE: I have been told that this plant is probably kinnickinnick, a salal relative, also native to this region. That is probably correct, although I also know that salal grows here, struggling in the sun. I must go back and collect samples of both and identify them properly.

UPDATE 2: It was kinnickinnick. I misjudged the size of the mushrooms.