Fabulous fungi

[annew]

Olga, Your photos are breathtaking - not only the fungi but your skill in photography and composition. 

[Melvyn Jope]

Olga, your superb photos are an inspiration, I took a much more careful look when out walking the dog in the woods this afternoon, I would have loved to stumble across some Shreks Ears but no such luck!

[Lori S.]

Ditto to all the compliments on the wonderful photography!

Just wondering... What was the common name for "Shrek's Ears" before the movie?

[angie]

Olga I agree with Annew your photos are breathtaking, hope there are more to come

Angie

[Stephenb]

I just found this thread too - fantastic! I've seen many of these fungi in my own woods but have never really seen their real beauty which you are showing us here with your macro photography. The incredible diversity of fruiting bodies of these fungi is truly amazing. But these are "just" fruiting bodies - the real vegetative part of the fungus is underground and most species are unseparable to us in this form. So, why have so many diverse forms of fruiting bodies developed? What are the evolutionary advantages?

In our woods, the number of larger fungi is perhaps 10-20 times as many as the number of flowering plants in the same woods and a real challenge to learn - I gave up a few years ago and concentrated on the edible species.

[Stephenb]

This year I met legendary mushroom which is known like the best. In Russian it names Ryzhik. It could be eaten uncooked, roasted, boiled, marinaded or fermented. It has it’s own unique scent. It is rare and usually worm-eaten. But this year…

This is a favourite edible species here too, but as you experience they are usually infested with fly larvae. Very common here though (there are two closely related  species associated with Pine and Spruce trees).  It's Lactarius deliciosus (or a closely related species), the Saffron Milk Cap, one of the easiest fungi to recognise with its orange-red latex which appears when you break one. Excellent taste.

I'd love to learn lactofermentation of mushrooms....

[mark smyth]

I remember when I was younger, much younger, my father brought home bags of field mushroom. Within days they were infested with some sort of fruit fly. Maggi mentioned drying mushroom. How is this done?

What about magic mushroom?

[Maggi Young]

Maggi mentioned drying mushroom. How is this done?

See Stephen B's post here: http://www.srgc.org.uk/smf/index.php?topic=4284.msg114575#new in the Bulgarian Fungi thread!

Hans J's wife is an expert, too! 

[Hans J]

Stephen :

we call here in Germany this fungi : Reizker

Mark :

all Boletus are well for drying ...all other not !

for 'magic mushroom ' :
one is Amanita muscaria -he has a activ which is called ' Muscimol' .....this will give halluzinations - but this fungi has also other poissoness actives.....so many peoples are died after testing !
We call here in Germany this fungi 'Fliegenpilz' ( fly fungi) .....in earlier times the farmers make pieces of them in a saucer with a little bit milk ...when the flies came and eat so they are soon dead and the cows has not more problems with the flies ....

[Stephenb]

Stephen :
we call here in Germany this fungi : Reizker

Almost the same where it's called Matriske. Mat=Food and Riske=Reizker is the common  name for Lactarius spp.

[Hans J]

here is a pic of a fungi where common in this time - we call it 'Hallimasch' ( Armillariella mellea)
....we like it not for eating because we makes problems with stomach ( should should cook it tow times ) ....and also you should not dring alkohol if you eat it

here is a pic of a 'Fliegenpilz' ( Amanita muscaria )

[Olga Bondareva]

Dear all thank you for warm words!

Melvin,
Shrek's Ears which are most popular here are definitely rare. My experience is most of  small fungi like birch logs.

Lori
There was no any common name for these fungi. It’s latin name is Chlorociboria aeruginosa.

Stephen
Sometimes I think mushrooms become a food for people in cold climates…

To ferment Lactarius deliciosus you take a bucket, put watered, cleaned and salted mushrooms into it (you do not have to boil them, some gourmets even do not wash them) with dill seeds, garlic and black currant branches. Next day you see mushrooms give a lot of juice. Then you have to press mushrooms by something (for example by a plate with a stone on it). Pressing thing must be covered by juice and by clean cotton fabric. So… you have to wait a couple of weeks sometimes cleaning a fabric from mould. You can add new mushrooms to the bucket, this just elongate fermentation period. You can also add other kinds of mushrooms to the same bucket but you have to boil or macerate them.

What other mushrooms are edible in your country?

[Stephenb]

for 'magic mushroom ' :
one is Amanita muscaria -he has a activ which is called ' Muscimol' .....this will give halluzinations - but this fungi has also other poissoness actives.....so many peoples are died after testing !
We call here in Germany this fungi 'Fliegenpilz' ( fly fungi) .....in earlier times the farmers make pieces of them in a saucer with a little bit milk ...when the flies came and eat so they are soon dead and the cows has not more problems with the flies ....

This is the well known (in English) Fly Agaric mushroom. I was recently reading a very interesting long article about this species in the Journal of the Society of Economic Botany.  (Rubel, W.; Arora, D. (2008). "A Study of Cultural Bias in Field Guide Determinations of Mushroom Edibility Using the Iconic Mushroom, Amanita Muscaria,as an Example". Economic Botany 62 (3): 223–43.) Apparently this species is on the contrary one of the most used species for food in the Northern Hemisphere amongst traditional peoples. The potentially dangerous and hallucinogenic chemicals are destroyed by cooking. It is argued that it is much safer to eat this species than the Trumpet Chantarelle (for instance) as the Fly Agaric is easily identified and there are no other species that it is likely to be confused with. One just have to remember to cook it properly. They also were unable to find verifiable incidents of deaths caused by the use of this fungus as a hallucinogen. However, I'm not in a hurry to try it, although I AM curious....

I think Mark's Magic Mushroom (MMM) is a different species altogether... I know nothing.

[Olga Bondareva]

Hans
'Fliegenpilz' is very pretty but poisonous. 'Hallimasch' is a tasty autumn mushroom good for fermentation or roasting.

[Thomas Huber]

Welcome back Olga and what a glorious series of photos - again 

Did anybody realize, that Olga already "made" a book.
Many of her photos are in Holubec's 'Flowers of the Caucasus' ?