Lots of Mushrooms

Dave R.'s picture

Greetings All.  I have been busy with a couple of projects and until a few weeks ago it had been quite a dry summer here in Huntingdon County.  The drought finally broke several weeks ago and then Tropical Storm Lee provided us with some seven inches of rain over a three day period.  That's gotta produce mushrooms.  And it did. 

Although I have not spent nearly as much time in the woods as I'd like, I figured I had to make time for at least a few outings.  And I have been finding quite a few mushrooms; some old friends, some vague acquaintances, and some complete strangers.  On one recent foray I visited a trail near the lake that I have hunted previously.  It has a mix of habitats and under favorable conditions I can count on finding a few mushrooms there.  The recent outing produced more mushrooms than I have ever seen there before.  The distribution of mushrooms was not uniform.  Some sections of the trail were relatively baron, while other sections seemed to be wall to wall mushrooms.  And in many of those areas where there were a lot of mushrooms there were a lot of different mushroom species growing in close proximity. 

The photo below illustrates an example.  In this case I had stopped to admire a patch of the small, bright red-orange mushrooms in the center of the photo.  As I approached for a better look I had to watch each step to keep from trampling some other mushroom.  There were dozens of mushrooms growing in an area of just a few square yards.  Just for kicks I gathered together a mushroom or two of each of the more interesting species and snapped a photo.  I believe there are 17 species represented in the photo, and there were several other more mundane, less photogenic species fruiting within that small area that were not included. 

If you enjoy seeing a nice variety of mushrooms (and who in their right mind doesn't?) this is a great time for a mushroom walk.  And, fortunately, there's a club outing in just a few days.  That should be fun. 

Dave