A multitude of one

Mushrooms grow on soil, on mossy rocks, on fir cones, on old logs. In Cathedral Grove, we passed many growing on tree trunks.

The stalk grows out horizontally, then curves upwards.

All of these (all of the photos) seem to be the same species; creamy gills, white rings, smooth brown, flattish cap.

They grow out of crevices in the old bark.

The stalks on these are much darker, and the caps are freckled.

More freckled caps, growing on a mossy trunk.

Showing off the gills.

In my little guide, Common Mushrooms of the Northwest, I found only one that seems to match; the Honey Mushrooms, Armillaria mellea complex. (12 related species). (Probably Armillaria ostoyae.)

These grow on standing wood, or buried wood near conifers and the mushrooms we see are a small part of the huge hidden body of the fungus; one individual may cover hundreds of acres, spreading from tree to tree. It is possible that all the ones we saw on the walk through Cathedral Grove were outcrops of the same organism.

'Shroom heaven

The sun shines through dripping curtains of hanging moss, warming layers of black bark and orange maple leaves. Slugs feast on white mushroom meat. In the dark crevices between the fallen trees, polypore fungi gleam. It's fall in the rainforest.

Sunlight and hanging moss

Blending in. Big-leaf maple leaves and five big mushrooms to match.

This creamy-capped mushroom has slightly purplish grey gills.

Red-belted polypores with a pinkish cast.

Spore-laden firs and glistening mushrooms

These gilled mushrooms are common in the Grove. They all have freckles in the centre of a slightly pinkish cap.

Down in the mud under a log, we found these large, muddy boletes, identifiable as boletes by the dense pores instead of gills. I had to "see" them with my fingertips, as there was no way I was going to put my cheek in that cold mud.

More to come, tomorrow. This was a mushroom-rich forest!

Mushroom country

And more mushrooms from Cathedral Grove. The forest was dotted with them everywhere; every few steps we saw another clump.

A rotting, moss-covered stump, with its sprinkling of mushrooms.

Most of the trees on this side of the highway are Douglas firs. About 300 years ago, a forest fire downed many of them, and their enormous trunks lie on the ground, covered in a thick mossy blanket. In the space the fire opened up, big-leaf maples reach for the sunlight.

Ideal mushroom habitat; green, dim, and wet.

Mushrooms, burnt bark, and a mulch of big-leaf maple leaves.

Weeping shelf fungus, looking like a sticky bun, on the cut end of a log.

Gilled brown and beige mushroom. There's a scrap of hairy lichen here; these elastic threads hang from all the upper branches.

A similar mushroom, with a paler stalk.

More mushrooms tomorrow.

Under the firs

We went to Cathedral Grove on the Port Alberni highhway to look at the big trees and found mushrooms, small and large. It had been raining; the paths were muddy and puddly, the fallen leaves quickly turning to mush. Perfect mushroom conditions.

Mushroom and wet moss. And a strand of spider web.

The rest of the photos are still waiting to be processed. More tomorrow.