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Good morning #MushroomTwitter! Today we're counting down my TOP 20 fungi of 2020, starting with #20:
Fairy fingers (Clavaria fragilis) is technically edible, but considered "insubstantial and flavorless". But those spooky white spindles sure caught my attention in October.
Fairy fingers (Clavaria fragilis) is technically edible, but considered "insubstantial and flavorless". But those spooky white spindles sure caught my attention in October.
#19 - Turkey tail (Trametes versicolor) is a very common mushroom, but it can produce some dazzling patterns with its concentric rings. These ones I found in September had really electric-white outer rings.
#18 - A whole mushroom city of pinewood gingertail (Xeromphalina campanella) found on a rotting log in August. Technically edible, but not desired as they are small and bitter.
#17 - This "reddish brown" bitter bolete (Tylopilus rubrobrunneus) I found in August was actually one of the purplest mushrooms I saw all year. Beautiful velvety texture too.
#16 - I was very excited to find this devil's urn (Urnula craterium) in April, because it's supposed to pop up at the same times and places as morels (Morchella spp.). Didn't end up find morels, but the devil's urn itself is pretty unique.
#15 - The teeth on these depressed hedgehogs (Hydnum umbilicatum) are tough to clean, but they look cool and make the mushroom easy to identify. I made some amazing mushroom burgers out of these.
#14 - Found these velvet foot mushrooms (Flammulina velutipes) just recently in December. This is the wild form of enoki, which is common in Japanese cuisine but is thin and white. Love the bright orange glossy caps.
#13 - Snow fungi (Tremella fuciformis) like this one I found in October are used in Chinese and Vietnamese cuisine. A relative of witch's butter (T. mesenterica), both have a yeast-like phase of their lifecycle before encountering a host and producing gelatinous fruiting bodies.
#12 - Found these twin jelly babies (Leotia lubrica) in September. Another bland edible, but I love the name, small size, and irregularly shaped heads.
#11 - This young old-man-of-the-woods (Strobilomyces strobilaceus) from June was one of many I saw this year. With its fuzziness, black and white patterning, and ring around the stem, it's one of the easiest boletes to ID. Tasty too, in my opinion.
#10 - Speaking of easy-to-ID boletes, saw this shaggy-stalked bolete (Aureoboletus betula) in August among many others. I liked the hooked stem and deep reddish orange coloration on the cap on this specimen. Not personally a fan of the taste, but some people love them.
#9 - I saw plenty of wood ear fungi (Auricularia americana) this year, but nothing that rivaled the density on this one log in May. I actually haven't tried it yet, but it's a popular soup ingredient Chinese cooking.
#8 - OK I guess I really like jelly fungi. Found these fan-shapped jelly fungi (Dacryopinax spathularia) in August. I just really liked the shape and color of these. Another one used in some Chinese cooking.
#7 - This was just a perfect specimen of blewit (Lepista nuda). Found in October when they were pretty common. Another edible I've yet to try, in this case because it can be confused with some poisonous Cortinarius spp.
#6 - I had seen pictures of fluted bird's nest fungi (Cyathus striatus) before, but didn't know how tiny and adorable they were until I saw them in person in August. The "eggs" are spore-containing bodies, but they really do make it look like a bird's nest.
#5 - There aren't too many naturally blue foods, which is part of what makes the indigo milk cap (Lactarius indigo) so special. Found this in September, and it tasted alright, although - and I think this was purely psychological due to color - it tasted distinctly of froot loops.
#4 - This incredible haul of hen-of-the-woods (Grifola frondosa) in October. Got over 10kg, and that was after sharing some with another forager. Still have lots in my freezer. This is one of my very favorite mushrooms by taste, amazing on toast.
#3 - I love all chanterelles, but this flame chanterelle (Craterellus ignicolor) from August really lived up to its name with the bright color, and I liked the wavy patterning on the cap. Delicious on pizza or in omelets.
#2 - This false Caesar's mushroom (Amanita parcivolvata) from August just looked like THE archetypal mushroom. Really, the most iconic mushroom is the poisonous and psychoactive fly agaric (A. muscaria); this one is nearly identical, just lacking the central ring.
