Found: A Funny Fungi

It had been a rainy quiet day, spent mostly inside. A little cleaning on my part, a lot of free play for the boys. I thought for sure nature study was on hold for the moment, but around here, it seems you just never know ...

The boys had worked all afternoon on the construction of a multi-puppet, multi-zoned, nature-fairy complex (pictures to come of, course). There was so much to decide: who would live in the tree house and who would prefer the log? Just where should the lava be flowing ~ into the pond or over the bridge? And who would be the unlucky chap in mortal peril ~ the beaver, the gnome, or maybe the skunk?

Anyway ... more on all that later (I promised them a post). I left "Volcanic Fairy Town" in the capable hands of the busy builders, and ran outside for a check on the status of the Spruce buds, to see how they looked after a week's worth of rain  ... when a strange little something caught my eye. Something ~ or some things ~ were growing in clumps, all along the northwestern side of the house ...

 

Mushrooms!!!

And quite odd-looking ones at that! Little mysteries of nature, popping up on an otherwise unexceptional day ...

After a little information digging, both online and off, we think they are probably Morels; but in case they are the similar but posionous False Morels, we won't be ingesting them anytime soon. This site shows the difference and I am pretty certain ours are the real deal, but I find it curious that none of the birds or squirrels seem to be eating them. According to the Handbook of Nature Study however, morels should not be eaten once their cells have turned from "creamy white" to brown. Well, as you can see, these specimens are clearly more brown than white now, so eating is out of the question. Hmmm ... we wondered what else we could do with these things, except obviously photograph them and journal about them here ...

... when I remembered a recent post by Rebecca, who was inspired by a post by Leonie, about making mushroom spore prints when they found fungi in their gardens ... (Oh, how I love the 4Real community!)

So ... with direction from Rebecca and Leonie (and some information found here), we are attempting to make morel spore prints from the few we gathered today. I placed several caps on some white computer paper and set them out of reach of little hands (and paws). This was all around 3 this afternoon, so we'll take a peek before bed, and if necessary, check again in the morning. Because morels have an oddly shaped cap, unlike the umbrella shaped mushrooms used by Leonie and Rebecca, our prints could be profoundly different. Morel-print instructions from www.mushroomexpert.com:

"For mushrooms belonging to the Ascomycetes, like the morels and false morels, a spore print is obtained using a similar method. However since these mushrooms have tiny spore jets that forcibly eject the spores (as opposed to the way spores just fall away from mushrooms with gills or pores), you will need to take a piece of the cap and place it on the paper and expect a spore print around the mushroom section, rather than underneath it."

Okee-dokes. Well, we have it all set up in this way (below), only with a Pyrex dish placed on top; now we just have to wait!

And while we are waiting, here is some more information from the ever-dependable, always engrossing, Handbook of Nature Study:

The Morels

"In May or June in open, damp places, such as orchards or the moist fence-corners of meadows, the morels may be found. This mushroom family contains no member that is poisonous and the members are very unlike any other family in appearance. They are very pretty with their creamy white, thick, swollen stems and a cap more or less conical, made up of the deep-celled meshes of an unequal network. The outside edges of the network are yellowish or brownish when the morel is young and edible, but later turn dark as the spores develop. In some species the stems are comparatively smooth and in others their surface is more or less wrinkled. The spores are borne in the depressions of the network."

Stay tuned for the results ~ they'll be posted, successful or no! :)