Eating the Chicken of the Woods
Chicken-of-the woods is hard to miss in the forest, being bright orange on top and yellow underneath. It’s a good beginner’s mushroom, has a texture like chicken, and apparently it makes a tasty omelet too.
Cabbage monstrosities
The things that were once called Fungi but aren’t anymore are legion. Here’s one of them, a little swimmy thing that causes clubroot of cabbage. It gives cabbage monstrously clubbed roots, and as a bonus, acts as a vector for other diseases. Although we love its monstrous cruelty, we have banished it from the kingdom of Fungi. Be gone!
Introducing Ganoderma lucidum and G. tsugae
Reishei mushrooms have long been respected and renowned for their healing powers. Despite their fame, you might be able to find them in your neck of the woods.
Daedaleopsis confragosa and the Minotaur
Mycologists are fond of naming things after mythological characters, like Daedalus, an engineer who built a maze to hold that ill-tempered Minotaur. Our fungus has a maze-like spore-bearing surface worthy of Daedalus. His later work on Icarus’ wings wasn’t as successful…
Giant puffballs, Calvatia gigantea
Giant puffballs are seldom confused with anything but soccer balls, so they’re a good beginner mushroom. However, to me they taste a bit like styrofoam packing chips, but not everyone agrees with me…
Hypholoma sublateritium–edible?
Brick caps have a mixed reputation, in terms of their edibility. Here one brave student reports on his experience eating Hypholoma sublateritium.
Time lapse stink
Here’s something I know you’ve all been dying to see. A video of one of the most compellingly jaw-dropping spectacles in mycology, condensed from four days of electrifying footage. What you can’t see is the stink, the awesome stink associated with this event. It caused our noble departmental photographer, Kent Loeffler, to vent the noxious, […]
Lemon lapse time rot
Moldy lemons aren’t victims of just any mold–they have their own specific pair of evil parasites. Here a lemon succumbs to one of those evil Penicillium twins, in time lapse.
Complementary Colors–Hemlock rust
I am fortunate to live in a grove of hemlock trees by a babbling stream. A soft, blue-green hemlock light embraces me as I drive home in the evenings. In June, however, bright orange stars appear in the hemlocks. Amid the healthy turquoise hemlock cones, some wear a dense powdery coat of orange aeciospores. This […]