Breitenbush Mushroom Conference

I couldn't have asked for better weather for hunting mushrooms. It was sunny, autumn warm during the day with crisp-cold and star-filled nights.
The Big-leaf maples and alder leaves were bright yellow and the vine maples red. The leaves were falling, drifting over the road both on the main highway and even more picturesque on the side road from Detroit to Breitenbush. I drove up to the conference center. The photos don't even vaguely convey the intensity of the colors.

There were plenty of mushrooms available in the area, most of which don't occur this far north, but there was some overlap in species between the Sitka and Breitenbush. I didn't nececessarily expect there to be alot of overlap given the differences in vascular plant species and in the climate, I was just hopeful that there would be more species in common. Still it was valuable learning/relearning some species that might show up here at some point.
The speakers were pretty engaging; I particularly enjoyed and will no doubt use Tom Volk's description of what it would be like if people digested then ingested their food (like fungi) instead of ingesting then digesting food. Also found useful his description of waxy gills as similar to hardening candle wax. Not that it is terribly easy to fill the gills of Hygrophori, but now I have a better description of what a waxy gill is. I had totally forgotten about secondary homothallism until his lecture. Instead of 4 spores per basidia these fungi produce 2 spores. Each spore has 2 nuclei. Kind of handy not to need to find a compatible mating type of hyphae in order to reproduce. He showed a great little clip of hyphal growth borrowed from Fungal Cell biology website http://129.215.156.68/movies.html, there are also images that can be used for educational purposes. http://129.215.156.68/images.html

His second lecture talked about common misconceptions about fungi. He used his grandmother as the vehicle for this talk "my grandmother said that if you cooked mushrooms with a silver spoon and the spoon turned black, the mushrooms are poisonous". It was an entertaining way to cover the subjecty, alas I can't use it as my grandmothers never said anything about mushrooms and my mother had too much of a science background to say anything too crazy.

Paul Stamets gave a inspirational talk about how fungi could save the planet. He was preaching to the choir and the choir enjoyed the sermon. One topic that was interesting to me was the use (and medicinal value) of Fomitopsis officinalis by the Haida people of Haida Gwai. The species doesn't occur on the islands because it is associated with Douglas Fir which doesn't make it that far north. Paul suggested that it was an item that was collected on their travels down the coast. They were apparently also collecting people. Nancy Turner's book Plants of the Haida Gwaii doesn't mention any use of this species or of F. pinicola which occurs on the isands. Apparently the myceldium contains chemicals that are active against smallpox, something that would have been more than a little useful when that disease spread up the coast.

His second talk was also pretty interesting, more how fungi could help our souls.

Dorothy Beebee didn't give a formal presentation but offered a hand's on dye workshop Friday afternoon. We used Hypholoma fasiculare, Phaeolus schweinitzii and Hypomyces (lobster mushroom). All gave nice yellows. I did learn that to intensify colors of Hydnellums one should use alkali (washing soda) and a little acid (vinegar) will do the same for colors from Dermocybe.

I took alot of photos of the fungi collected; I'm including a few of the interesting ones.

Cyathus striatus. I suppose it could be C. helenae (the latter has hairs in tufts, the former the hairs aren't in tufts.), but the hairs don't look particularly tufted.

Gomphidius subrosea: this was probably the most common fungus that I saw in the forest. It is nicely viscid, apparently edible if you like slime and mycorrhizal with Doug Fir. Since there was an abundance of Chanterelles and other more highly regarded edibles, none of these mushrooms were delivered to the chef.

Found my first Matsutake (Tricholoma magnivelare) on this trip. On Saturday morning, went with a group up the Breitenbush highway toward Estacada, turned on the Red Lake road and parked about 1 mile in. I walked up the slope toward the larger Douglas Firs. It was very open and dry. Saw just a bit of the white cap of the matsutake, thought it was a Russula until I could see the veil. The smell is difficult for me to describe, except as strong.

I found a couple of references to this fungus being associated with Allotropa virgata, a mycotrophic vascular plant. Seems that Allotropa is dependent on this fungus for carbohydrates. http://www.bayareamushrooms.org/mushroommonth/matsutake.html
Found a number of Larch trees on this trip to Red Lake trail. Most had turned bright yellow.

Auriscalpium vulgare

A saprophyte on Douglas Fir cones. This is supposed to be widely distributed in North America, not sure what type of cones it utilizes outside the distribution of Doug fir, maybe pines?

Geastrum: I haven't decided which species of Earth Star. Definately haven't seen any of these puffballs in southeast.

I didn't see alot of birds at Breitenbush, but then I spent most of my time outdoors head down looking for fungi in in one of the hotspring pools. Did see a dipper in the river while soaking. Extremely luxurious, not quite as much as watching shooting stars from the pools, but close enough. Did see a very tame Gray jay on one of the forays.

Seems that there are places in the Pacific Northwest where the leaves are red and gold and the sun shines all day long. I'll not dwell on the downside of this part of the world.

Dad and I went to Minto park in the afternoon. Many, many geese, looked like both Dusky Canada and Cackling were in the slough and flying over. I only remember hearing about Duskies when I was a kid, but then cacklers were just another type of Canada goose at that time. Found a report in the Thursday morning Statesman Journal that talked about Cackling geese arriving in mid October and staying through the winter. Guess I need to update my Willamette valley information.

Watched a Great Egret feeding on the far side of the slough. The yellow beak excluded a Snowy egret and the size and lack of brown-red seems to indicate a Great as opposed to a cattle egret, but I'm not totally convinced. . What was kind of interesting was the way it undulated its neck from side to side between strikes. The very bright and warm sun made it a bit difficult to identify most of the birds, but I could make out American Widgeons, Mallards, Coots, Double crested cormorants and Kingfishers.

Doesn't matter how well I know that the leaves of Acer macrophyllum are large, every time I see them I'm impressed. Gathered a bouquet of bright yellow ones for Dad.

Sunday afternoon the sun came out and the feeder was swarming with birds and I realized that I'm seriously smitten with the Nuthatches. At least it seems like obsession since I can barely take my eyes off of them when they are around. Being entranced by their chatter is another symptom. I think that I can recognize two of the birds; both are lighter in color than the rest of the birds. According to the Cornell web site the top of the females head are blue-grey, the belly is lighter and the eyestrip narrower. The juveniles are similar to the adults but duller. In the end, I'm not sure if the lighter ones are juveniles or females. After looking at the photos I've taken, I can't notice much difference in the width of the eyestripes of the birds. The belly and head color might be more reliable indicator of gender.

One of the lighter birds is much fluffier than the other rather sleek looking birds. The other light one is just as slender as the other darker or richer colored individuals. I managed to get a photo of the fluffy bird, but not of the sleek one.

Based on the dark head and the brightish belly, I'm assuming that the nuthatch on the feeder is a male.

Found a population of about 20 Armillaria growing in the alder chips in front of the flower garden behind the house. I'm sure that they are the same as I found there last fall. Last fall, I decided they were A. ostoyae based on the macroscopic features. The key character that lead me to ostoyae was the dark fibrils on the surface of the younger caps.

Trolling around Tom Volk's website I read an article about a relatively newly described species of Armillaria (1999); A. nabsnona that had slipped under my radar.

An unfortunately easy thing to accomplish. The clincher for this species was the interesting branching of the basidia. This wasn't a subtle character with a thin section of the gill, at least not with some careful squishing with an eraser on the coverslip.

One interesting thing about Volk's key is the absence of ostoyae. One of the questions I hope to get answered at Breitenbush this week is what happened to ostoyae. That species is included on M. Kuo's key to North American Armillaria. The key lead in the latter key to get to ostoyae is the presence of dark scales on the cap and that the primary host is conifers. Apparently it can also occur on hardwoods.

http://www.mushroomexpert.com/armillaria.html.

http://botit.botany.wisc.edu/toms_fungi/feb99.html

http://botit.botany.wisc.edu/toms_fungi/armkey.html

Continued to work on putting the garden to bed for the winter. I moved 8 5-gallon buckets of seaweed up the hill, brings me to 14 and I'll need about 10 more to cover the vegetable beds.

Also took a last swipe at the huckleberries just before dark. Didn't add much to the freezer, maybe a half of a gallon zip lock bag, but it was satisfying to pick from the last of the heavy laden bushes by the trail.

On Friday the 17th went for a brief walk up Gavan Hill trail. The weather varied between rain (often rather intense) and brief teaser bits of sunshine. I got soaked.
Collected a mushroom that I only had glimpses of last fall, that is when I found this fungus last year, it was pretty far gone. Last years' were growing in the bench muskeg in areas with alot of small pine trees. It was absent from the areas with abundant Carex livida. This year I found one rather chewed up specimen in the muskeg off the quarry road, again in an area with lots of small pines and ericaceous shrubs.

This patch of the mushrooms were growing near Shore pine rather close to the lower part of the trail. Saw a Hermit thrush while looking for additional populations of this mushroom.
The cap and stipe are a dark pink over white. The less developed caps were a bit deeper pink than the larger ones. The larger caps were slightly lighter on the margins. The largest caps were 6 and 7 cm across. The gills are distant, waxy and white with a bit of a pink cast. The gills did show some pink bruising, but I didn't see any with entirely pink gills. The stem was white at the very top, and the rest pink. The end was attenuated and most had a bit of a curve to the lowermost part. The largest were 10 and 11cm long and 1.5 cm in diameter. The cap and stem were quite moist almost sticky, but they dried quickly. I didn't notice any odor and the taste was mild.

I struggled my way through Hesler and Smith's monograph of Hygrophorus to subsection Camarophylli, series Rubentes; H. erubescens seems to be the best fit. I was tempted by the habitat to call this one H. capreolarius, but that species has darker gills. One subspecies of H. erubescens does seem to occur in bogs in Clayoquot Sound on Vancouver Island, so I'll stick with that species for now.

This mushroom doesn't seem to be as robust or bulky as what I've seen eg. http://www.svims.ca/council/illust/Hygrophorus%20erubescens%201%20Michael%20Beug.htm

This photo looks a bit better http://www.flickr.com/photos/23151213@N03/2525032540/in/pool-84638739@N00

The habitat reference was; Macrofungi from six habitats over five years in Clayoquot Sound, Vancouver Island
Christine Roberts, Oluna Ceska, Paul Kroeger, and Bryce Kendrick. 2004. Canadian Journal of Botany 82:1518-1538

I noticed that I decided this mushroom was H. pudorinus var pudorinus last year, not sure why I ignored the lack of a yellow stem base. Must have been desperate to call it something.

The 8 nuthatches are still visiting the feeder, they are pretty dedicated at food gathering. They go through whatever amount of food that is put out for them. Still wish I could get a reasonable recording of their chatter, but haven't managed to do so as yet. The birds are pretty tame, at least they keep eating when I'm standing right next to the feeder. Kind of odd for here but, the Juncos and Chickadees are less numerous at the feeder than the Nuthatches.

A Northern Flicker came to the feeder tree a few times over the last two weekends. Didn't land on the feeder or the rail, stayed on a branch nearby.


The Golden crowned sparrows seem to have moved on.


Seeing the Fork-tailed storm petrels most days on my commute, on the 14th they were in the channel between Japonski and town. Also on the 14th saw the first Longtails of the season in the channel.
The commute birds are starting to settle into winter mode; saw a loon with a distinctly yellow bill (I'm willing to call it a Yellow-billed loon) on Thursday and a Common loon on Friday. I noticed the first Harlequins on the rocks by the Galankin dock on Thursday and a pair of mallards on Saturday morning.
The Fork-tailed Storm petrels are around most days. I've only seen one that I thought was a Leach's. Other birds seen on the commute include: Black-legged Kittiwakes, Pelagic and Double Crested Cormorants and one Horned Grebe on the 14th.

Planted the local grown garlic plus 2 new varieties from Territorial, Belarus and Chesanok Red, over the last two weekends. It is the latest that I've planted it, so I'm crossing my fingers that it does well. Have most of the garden harvested and cleaned up, most of the harvest was rather pathetic, but what grew, tasted good. The Maria heirloom potatoes from Haines produced several knobby potatoes somewhat similar in shape to Swedish peanut.
On another catch-up sort of note, there was snow on Picnic Rock on the 6th of October.

Collecting mushrooms has slowed down a little, mostly because I've been busy doing other things. Still there are a few things that I've managed to figure out over the last week or so.

Camarophyllus pratensis: This species was growing on the lawn at Sheldon Jackson.

The cap is a orange or coral color with a somewhat variable shape. Neither the cap or stem are viscid. The The gills are decurrent white and subdistant. The stipe was also white.

The cap color, lack of stickiness and staining and habitat are pretty distinctive, apparently the gills are often the same color as the cap. In Mushrooms Demystified the habitat is either open or grassy places or under Redwoods.

Xylaria cornu-damae: on unidentifiable rotten wood near beginning of Gavan Hill trail. The stalks weren't divided and antler-like as are those of X. hypoxylon. The stalks were more cylindrical and all black on the outer surface. I wasn't really sure what it was until I cut a section lengthwise. The interior was white with black perithecia lining the margin.

The lack of branching, club-shaped head, minutely bumpy surface and white interior seem to be good characters. I'm not entirely sure of the species. The Pacific Northwest Key council key leads me to that species without much trouble and the description seems good. There is a note that suggests that X. longipes might occur in the area, but it isn't documented. Both longipes and cornu-damae are said to occur on hardwood.

Tricholoma vaccinum: Alice Island under open grown Sitka spruce. If I'm remembering right they were growing in a manner that I could call gregarious. Caps were dark brown with darker fibrils, not quite what I would call scales. A key character for this species seems to be the veil remnants on the cap margin. A similar species T. imbricatum lacks the remnants on the cap margin. The stem was light with dark fibrils and hollow in the middle.

The other species seen recently that looks somewhat similar is Tricholoma pessundatum. The viscid cap is a good character to differentiate it. The cap is dark brown black in the center and somewhat lighter at the edge. The stem surface has vertical fibers. There was a strange odor to the fresh cap that dissapated. A patch of this species was growing on SJ campus near the museum in a relatively open woodsy spot under spruce. The largest of the caps were 5-6.5 inches across.

Cortinarius multiformis: Alice island growing under an open grown Sitka Spruce.
Kind of an attractive mushroom with a yellow brown cap, slightly darker brown edge. The cap was slightly viscid when wet and slightly shiny when dry. Has a thicker cobwebby veil that persists on the edge of the cap. Young gills are pale. The stipe is pale with brown fibrils, with a bulbous base.

Hygrophorus camarphyllus vs calophyllus: Alice island on the gravel walk behind the kindegarten that leads to a view of Sealing cove harbor. There were several under Sitka alder growing on the gentle slope from the walk.

Kind of difficult to make a decision about this one. The gills certainly aren't pink as described as sometimes occuring with H. calophyllus.

Did another test of the Cortinarius phoeniceus var. occidentalis. I should use Dermocybe for this species instead of Cortinarius as it was described as such in 1989. I finally found a good reference to the section that includes the red gilled species.

Ammirati, J.F. (1989). Dermocybe, subgenus Dermocybe, section Sanguineae in northern California. Mycotaxon 34 (1): 21-36 that was available at the CyberLiber http://www.cybertruffle.org.uk/cyberliber/

One of the issues I needed settled was the difference between D. semisanguinaria and D. phoenicea var. occidentalis. Cap color seems like it might be a somewhat variable characteristic to hang a species on, but that does seem to be the main characteristic I could find in the descriptions in the article.

The distribution of the two species overlaps, but D. semisanguinarius is more common on the east coast and phoenicea on the west coast.

"Dermocybe phoenicea var occidentalis is the most frequently encountered member of section Sanguineae on the Pacific Coast, extending from Californis into Alaska. It also occurs in the mountains of the interior where it can be found in some years as early as August. It prefers coniferous woods, but also occurs in mixed forests of conifers and deciduous trees. "

Recollected both species of Cortinarius or Dermocybe from the SJ spruce tree, this time keeping them in seperate paper bags. Sorting the dried fruiting bodies was kind of problematic last time and I was curious if the species had been mixed in the dye baths. Basically could I achieve the same colors twice?
Mordanted some roving and loose wool in Alum with a bit of cream of tartar the day before the dye bath. Used 23 brown Cortinarius (best fit is cinnamomeus) and 16 Dermocybe in quart jars about 2/3 full of water. The jars went in a water bath in the double pot designed for pasta. I was hoping that the extra layer would keep the jars from breaking. Also used the dye bath saved from the last round of dyes.

The mushrooms simmered in the dye bath for about 25 minutes before I added the wool. The exhaust dye jar went in the pot about 5 minutes before the wool was added. I let the dye bath go for another hour, then let the wool cool in the dye overnight.

The D. phoenicea wool was a pretty nice rose sort of red, a bit darker than the color of the silk scarf. The exhaust dye (left) was a tangerine color (similar to the color last time) and the Cortinarius cinnamomus was a lighter, duller orange. The pink wool above the red wool in the center is unmordanted wool put in the Dermocybe dyes.