A Good Year for Mushrooms

It seems that every time we take a walk we’re seeing mushrooms. Our stroll at Woodhus Slough last week was no exception. In addition to the Lake’s Boletus we found several other spectacular mushrooms that day, some that we were able to identify and others that we weren’t.

Probably the most beautiful (and coolest) mushroom of the day at Woodhus Slough was the Rosy Gomphidius (Gomphidius subroseus). There is no mistaking this mushroom. It has a reddish cap and stem covered with a thick layer of slime (the technical term for this characteristic is viscid). The stem is two–toned. The top is white and the base is yellow. It has a black ring near the gills under the cap. The gills are white and the spore print is black. If you look closely at the photograph you can see some hints of the black spores on the gills.

The second mushroom featured on this walk was the Western Purple (or Amethyst) Laccaria (Laccaria amethysteo-occidentalis). We had found, and subsequently identified, this mushroom on a previous walk at Miracle Beach Provincial Park so it was nice to be able to recognize it in the field. These laccarias were fresher than the one we had found earlier so they also photographed better!

Mystery Mushrooms at Woodhus Slough

Finally, what mushroom hunt would be complete without a mystery mushroom or two. A word of advice to fellow mushroom novices: don’t collect too many mushrooms to identify or you’ll end up completely overwhelmed! I think that the mushroom below might be a Cortinarius. However, I am not 100% convinced. The cottony fibers along the rim of the mushroom are distinctive but didn’t help us with an identification. The spore print for this mushroom was cinnamon brown in colour. The mushroom was found growing in association with Douglas Fir.