Blue velvet mushroom

I found this mushroom in deep shade beside a logging road. It looks like a False Morel, Gyromitra esculenta. The cap looks to me like it's made of deep blue velvet.

Rounded lobes, described as brainlike.

Reddish brown when new, it blackens with age and exposure to sunlight.

The stem is smooth, tan to pinkish.

This morel look-alike is extremely poisonous. DO NOT EAT! On iNaturalist, I learned that even cooking it can be dangerous.

While cooking the fungus removes (most of) the toxins, the cook can become poisoned by the hydrazine fumes given off by cooking. (iNaturalist)

That link includes methods for cooking (for risk takers); open windows, chop mushroom, boil in plenty of water, drain, rinse, repeat 3 to 5 times. If symptoms of poisoning appear, move outside to fresh air.  Some of the poison will remain and is cumulative, so do not eat more than once.

A better idea; look it over and leave it for a slug's dinner.

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Encontré este hongo en la sombra al lado de un camino de madereros. Parece ser la Falsa Colmenilla, Gyromitra  esculenta. Y parece ser hecho de terciopelo azul.

1. Tiene lóbulos redondeados; algunos lo describen como "cerebriforme".
2. De color marrón cuando es nuevo, y con el tiempo y al ser expuesto a la luz del sol, se vuelve negro.
3. El tallo es liso, de color beige o con un poco de color de rosa.

Este hongo se parece a las colmenillas, hongos apreciados por su sabor, pero este es extremadamente venenoso. ¡NO LO COMAS! Hasta hervirlo puede resultar peligroso.

El veneno responsable de la toxicidad es la giromitrina, muy tóxico en solución acuosa o al vapor, de lo cual se deduce que es posible intoxicarse sin llegar a comer setas. (iNaturalist, Ecuador)

En iNaturalist (en inglés) se incluyen instrucciones para cocinar lo (para los amantes de riesgos): abrir las ventanas, picar el hongo, hervir en gran cantidad de agua, tirar el agua, enjuagar, y repetir de 3 a 5 veces. Si aparecen síntomas de envenenamiento, salir al aire fresco en el exterior. Algo del veneno se conservará, y se acumula; por lo tanto, no hay que comer este plato una segunda vez.

Tengo una idea mejor; míralo y déjalo. Le servirá de cena a una babosa.

Pale Amanitas

It seems to be Amanita season. With the hot, dry weather, most fungi have gone into hiding; still there, underground, but waiting for rain before they push their fruiting bodies (what we know as mushrooms) out into the light again. Not the assorted Amanita species; even in open fields, bathed in sunlight, they're still to be found.

This one is in half-shade.

Most Amanitas, whether they're the Fly Amanita, the Panther, or most others, can be identified by two characteristics; the "warts" or "fly-specks", remnants of the universal veil it wore as a youngster; and the volva, the other end of the same veil, showing as a ragged cup at the bottom of the stalk. Often this can only be seen by digging into the duff at the base. The mushroom may also wear a skirt-like partial veil remnant further up the stalk, as in the photo above.

Warts, partial veil ring, and hints of the volva beneath.

Top view.

This is where it gets tricky: the poisonous Amanita, when still a button, disguises itself as a puffball, edible and delicious. Cut in half, the structure of stalk and cap appears; not a puffball.

This looked like a dusty puffball until I pulled away the moss around the base. And there's the volva.

I used to eat mushrooms I found in the wild, especially puffballs. Not any more; the whole Amanita tribe is extremely variable, and has often been mistaken for edible mushrooms. Better safe than sorry.

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Parece que ahora es la temporada de las Amanitas. Ahora que hace calor, y que ya no llueve, la mayoría de los hongos están escondidos bajo tierra, esperando a que vuelve el agua, cuando de vuelta sus cuerpos fructíferos — los que nosotros llamamos hongos, sin tomar en cuenta la mayor parte del hongo, que vive en la oscuridad — saltarán a la vista de nuevo.

Pero no se esconden las Amanita; siguen apareciendo aun en terrenos abiertos, expuestos a pleno sol.

Foto # 1: Amanita, en media sombra.

La mayoría de los Amanita spp., ya sea la muscaria (la matamoscas), la Pantera, o casi todas las otras, se pueden identificar por dos características: en primer lugar, los restos del velo universal que lo envolvía en su primera etapa de crecimiento; algunos dicen que parecen fragmentos de algodón; con la edad y la lluvia a veces desaparecen.

En la base del estipe aparece de nuevo este velo, ya en forma de una copita que envuelve la base. Muchas veces éste solamente se puede ver si se retrae la tierra alrededor de la base.

Y a veces, no siempre, también quedan fragmentos de un velo parcial, en forma de una falda alrededor del tallo, tal como se ve en las primeras dos fotos aquí.

Foto # 2: Las manchas, el velo parcial, y casi escondido, la volva.

Foto # 3: El mismo hongo, vista desde arriba.

Estos hongos, cuando apenas son botones, se pueden parecer a los hongos polveras. Y los Amanita son tóxicos, mientras que los hongos polveras se pueden comer y son deliciosos. Se ve la diferencia, cortándolos por la mitad; en el centro, si es Amanita, se ven los indicios del estipe y sombrero.

Foto # 4: Este botón parecía hongo polvera, con fragmentos de musgo, hasta que le quité el musgo que escondía el pie, destapando la volva.

Hace tiempo, yo comía muchos hongos salvajes, sobre todo los hongos polvera. Ya no: toda la tribu de los Amanita es variable, en forma y color, y muchas veces se ha confundido con hongos comestibles, con resultados a veces trágicos. Más vale prevenir ...

Look, don't eat

This cool, damp weather makes for good mushroom hunting. Along the trail down to Elk Falls, I had to keep stopping to look at another. And another, just beyond it ...

This one was on a large, well-rotted, mossy log.

The Elfin saddle, as far as I can tell. Gyromitra infula. With a pretty, red fly.

This mushroom is extremely variable; the cap twists itself into strange shapes, and the colour can vary from this pale brown to a dark reddish brown. (I found one, up a tree, at Miracle Beach, a couple of years ago in December; it was much darker than this one.)

Elfin saddle in a tree.

And it is poisonous. Extremely so.

This fungus is inedible, as it contains the toxic compound gyromitrin, which when digested is metabolized into monomethylhydrazine. Although much of the gyromitrin may be removed by parboiling with generous volumes of water, consumption is not advisable due to possible long-term health effects. (Wikipedia)

And they say the fumes, as it is boiled, are also toxic. I think I'll pass.

A loonie measures exactly one inch across. I took a second photo, with the loonie that now lives in my camera case, to show the size of this mushroom: about 4 inches, 10 cm. across the cap, lengthwise.

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El clima de esta primavera, siendo tan fresco y húmedo, es ideal para buscar hongos. Caminando por el sendero hacia las cataratas Elk, tuve que detenerme a cada momento para ver uno nuevo. Y otro, y otro ...

Este crecía en un tronco bien podrido, cubierto de musgos. Es el Gyromitra infula, conocido como la silla elfina, o la morilla falsa encapuchada. Aquí está acompañada con una mosca roja.

Este hongo es sumamente variable; toma formas muy envueltas, y el color varía desde este café claro a un rojizo fuerte. Encontré uno en un árbol cerca de la playa Miracle Beach, hace un par de años, mucho más oscuro. 

Fotos:

1. El hongo de Elk Falls.
2. El de Miracle Beach
3. Y el primero, con una moneda para dar el tamaño.

Y es una especie tóxica. Muy tóxica.

"Este hongo es incomestible, porque contiene la sustancia tóxica giromitrina, la cual, al digerirse se metaboliza como monometilhidrazina. Aunque mucho de la giromitrina se puede remover al hervirse con abundante volumen de agua, su consumo no se recomienda porque puede traer efectos dañinos a la salud, a lo largo." (Wikipedia)

Y se dice que los vapores, mientras se hierve, también son tóxicos. No lo voy a probar.

Una moneda canadiense de un dólar (el loonie) mide exactamente una pulgada de diámetro. Saqué una segunda foto con el "loonie" que ahora vive en mi bolsa de la cámara para medir el hongo. El sombrero mide aproximadamente 4 pulgadas, o sea 10 cm. a eje mayor.

KIller

 A couple of mushrooms seen on the Lupin Falls trail. With visitors.

Amanita muscaria, Fly Amanita. With a fly.

And with another fly, and rove beetles roving about.

Amanita muscaria var. muscaria has the red cap. The yellowish capped variety is Amanita muscaria var. formosa. They both have the characteristic "warts" on the cap.

And they're both poisonous. The name, "fly amanita" and in Latin, "muscaria", possibly 

... comes from its historical usage as a fly killer. Small pieces of dried mushroom are placed in a bowl of milk. Flies are attracted to a chemical compound in the flesh of this mushroom that intoxicates them. They fall into the milk and drown, or die from the poisons they have consumed." (Common Mushrooms of the Northwest)

I wonder if the live mushroom, solid, makes the flies sick.

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Estos son dos hongos que encontré cerca de las cataratas Lupin. Son Amanita muscaria, var. formosa,el hongo llamado matamoscas. El primero viene con una mosca; el segundo lleva además unos escarabajos estafiliínidos.

Amanita muscaria var. muscaria tiene el sombrero rojo. El que tiene el sombrero amarillento es la Amanita muscaria var. formosa. Los dos hongos llevan las manchas características encima.

Y los dos son venenosos. El nombre, "matamoscas' y en latín, muscaria" ...

... se refieren a su uso histórico como matamoscas. Pequeños pedazos del hongo reseco se ponen en un recipiente con leche. Un compuesto químico en la carne de este hongo atrae a las moscas, y las emborracha. Se caen a la leche y se ahogan, o se mueren a causa del veneno que han ingerido." (de Hongos Comunes del Noroeste)

Me pregunto si el hongo vivo, no disuelto en leche, es capaz de dañarlas.

Mushroom in a tree

I left the shore at Miracle Beach and wandered through the woods, finding wide trails I hadn't visited before. The ground was still wet from the morning's rain, and there were mushrooms everywhere.

This one was up a tree.

Hooded false morel, aka Elfin saddle, Gyromitra infula.

This is another of the poisonous mushrooms to be aware of. It sort of looks like a morel, which is edible and delicious. But the false morel contains gyromitrin (named after the mushroom), which is converted in the body to MMH, a component of rocket fuels. Unfortunately, it doesn't make humans speedy.

Some of the morels must be cooked to become edible. It doesn't work for this one; even the fumes as it is cooked are toxic.

The cap of a real morel mushroom attaches directly to the stem, while the cap of a false morel grows around the stem. Real morel mushrooms are also hollow from top to bottom when cut in half, which varies from the filled nature of false morels. Finally, based on outward appearance, real morels are rather uniformly shaped and covered in pits that seem to fall inwards, whereas false morels are often considered more irregularly shaped with wavy ridges that seem to form outwards. (Wikipedia)

The mushroom grows on rotting or burnt wood. The forest in Miracle Beach is rich in both; many of the trees are blackened by the 1938 fire. The one sheltering the mushroom is a snag, burnt at the bottom, and rotting as it stands.

 

The mushroom's tree. Flash photo; it was dark down there in the woods.

The large holes have been dug by woodpeckers, searching for grubs.

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Me alejé de la playa en Miracle Beach, y vagué por los senderos en el bosque, donde no había visitado antes. El suelo estaba mojado por la lluvia mañanera, y había hongos en gran número por dondequiera.

Este crecía en un árbol.

Es la colmenilla falsa, o el hongo de silla de hadas, Gyromitra infula. Es un hongo venenoso, que se parece a otros hongos buenos para comer y delicioso. ¡Hay que tener cuidado! Este hongo contiene Gyromitrin (nombrado así por el hongo), que en el cuerpo humano se convierte in el compuesto tóxico monometilhidrazina, que se usa en combustibles para cohetes espaciales. A nosotros, no nos imparte velocidad, desafortunadamente.

Algunas de las colmenillas necesitan cocerse para hacerlos comestibles. Este método no sirve con la colmenilla falsa; aún los gases que emite mientras se cocina son tóxicos.

(De Wikipedia) El sombrerillo de una colmenilla verdadera se fija directamente al estipe, mientras que el sombrero de la colmenilla falsa crece alrededor del estipe. Las colmenillas verdaderas están completamente llenas, cortadas desde arriba para abajo; las colmenillas falsas están huecas. Finalmente, en su aparencia exterior, las colmenillas verdaderas tienen una forma más o menos regular, y están cubiertas de hoyos o pozuelos que caen para adentro, mientras que las falsas son irregulares y sus ondas parecen abultarse para afuera.

Este hongo crece en madera quemada o podrida. Aquí en el bosque de Miracle Beach, muchos de los árboles tienen la corteza quemada, a raiz del incendio del año 1938. El árbol donde crece este hongo está quemado y también bien podrido. Se ha convertido en "vela", un árbol muerto que se mantiene de pie. Las excavaciones a lo largo del tronco las han hecho los pájaros carpinteros, buscando insectos.

Beside Woodhus Slough

The annual winter Comox Valley Trumpeter Swan count started again a few weeks ago. My group this year will be surveying the Woodhus Slough once a week until the end of March, following a path that skirts the shore side of the slough.

The trail goes from Salmon Point Marina to the Oyster River estuary. 

The official public trail crosses the slough before it turns towards the shore, but this year, with all the steady rain we've been having, that part of the trail is completely flooded.

Only the tops of the fence posts along the trail are visible.

This area, in other years, has been open field. There are a few ducks, mallards and pintails, at the far side.

It is a pleasant walk, but we have seen few birds. Someone was out hunting; we heard the shots, and the distant clamour of Canada geese as they fled the area. A large flock of snow geese flew overhead, circled a couple of times, and left. And there have been no swans yet.

But there are mushrooms everywhere; showy amanitas, small brown umbrellas, wine-red Russulas (I think), and more.

Amanitas:

Fly agaric. Orange or red cap, with remnants of the veil, white gills and stem, with more veil shreds.

An almost clear cap, but the obvious "skirt" of the torn veil around the stalk.

Another, with reindeer lichen. I don't know if this is the same species; some Amanitas are edible. But I'm not experimenting, because others are extremely toxic.

Typical fly agaric. Deadly poison, but very pretty.

Almost colourless.

Apple-red mushrooms:

Red caps, white stalks and gills.

Tempting.

Clean, white gills and stalk. No traces of a veil.

And another pink mushroom:

Unidentified. There were only a few of these.

And a patch of white coral fungus:

These are growing on a pile of crumbling logs, covered in moss.

Each clump is about the size of my (small) fist.

And a bit more lichen. These are everywhere; on logs, on bare soil, on moss.

Arrow tip to tip is about 2 km.

Orange and poisonous.

Fly agaric mushroom. Deadly.

Looks good enough to eat!

It isn't. Don't try. It's the extremely poisonous fly agaric mushroom, Amanita muscaria, var. formosa.

15 caps will kill you. Fewer (but how many fewer?) will just make you crazy.

This is the common variant around here, with a yellow or orange cap. I have seen some of the deep red ones, up north in the Bella Coola valley. Very pretty; the mature mushroom caps were flat discs, as big as a cherry pie. A cherry pie with a sprinkling of sugary crumbles on the top.

Fly agarics are known for the unpredictability of their effects. ... (they) can range from nausea and twitching to drowsiness, cholinergic crisis-like effects (low blood pressure, sweating and salivation), auditory and visual distortions, mood changes, euphoria, relaxation, ataxia, and loss of equilibrium. ...
In cases of serious poisoning the mushroom causes delirium, ... characterised by bouts of marked agitation with confusion, hallucinations, and irritability followed by periods of central nervous system depression. Seizures and coma may also occur in severe poisonings. (From Wikipedia)

They're still beautiful.

Cherry root mushroom

At the base of an old cherry tree outside our building, these outlandish mushrooms have pushed their way through the landscaping gravel:

Group of three. They're up to about 8 inches across.

Another trio. These start out "normal", like the small round one at the far right.

Tough-skinned, shiny under all the dust, raggedly gilled.

I can't identify these. One of our neighbours says his mother used to cook them back in the "Old Country", in Eastern Europe. She boiled them with a silver spoon; if it tarnished, they were poisonous, he says. It's not a test I would trust.

I think I'll wait for an expert's opinion, a spore print, a DNA test, a test for pesticide contamination, and after all that, someone braver than I to play guinea pig.