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Tuesday, December 7, 2010

Mycena Genus

I spent some time yesterday looking for a field guide for fungi, unsuccessfully. This morning I decided to see what resources are available online. I finally settled on a database program called "Matchmaker: Mushrooms of the Pacific Northwest." Fumbling my way through that I came up with a tentative id for the above mushrooms as members of the genus Mycena. I Googled that and checked out the images until I found one that matched and decided to call it quits for this time around. I suspect my identification of fungi will never be more than approximate or hopeful. There are many, many different kinds and often, precise identification involves spore prints and other activities that I prefer to avoid. That, however, is not going to stop me from mushrooming (defined by Mykoweb as "the pursuit of mushrooms") and continuing to try to identify what I find. I will welcome any suggestions.

4 comments:

Mike Laplante said...

Nice photos -- one can 'feel' the moisture and the textures.

Here's a challenge for you... see if you can get some animal life while you're out there shooting the forest floor. Let's see some slugs!!

JoJo said...

I'm not good at botany so I can't help you w/ the ID. I agree w/ Mike, let's see some banana slugs!

Mike Laplante said...

Gardners hate 'em I know, but I'm kinda fond of the slimy, easygoing things... They could be the official animal of Vancouver Island they are so common.

Benjamin Madison said...

Allright already! When people start suggesting photos of slugs I get the feeling that my current obsession with fungi is not perhaps widely shared. However, it's a good suggestion and I propose to seek out some slugs - I haven't seen any lately - I wonder if they hibernate?