Turick Posted September 12, 2014 Report Share Posted September 12, 2014 Hi all... After years of wanting to get back into mushroom hunting, I finally decided to do it last fall. Unfortunately, it was too late for any hens, which are my favorite to find. I decided to go back out early this year to make sure I don't miss a thing. I've never hunted for anything besides hens and morels befre. I went out today and found some interesting mushrooms and was wondering if I could get some opinions or possible help identifying these. 1) First, I found a LOT of these... patches of them everywhere. I think these are chantrells. Some were new little tiny babies, some big, some big and decaying, and I even found large patches of completely black rotten ones. I grabbed the ones I thought were good. 2) I found quite a few of these as well. They look kind of similar to the chantrells, except they are much more red and smaller. 3) This was one small grouping I found... not much to say, but I grabbed them just in case they're good: 4) Pretty much the same here... these were growing on the same tree but I'm not sure what they are 5) These guys were really odd... they looked like stalks of asparagus or something. They were growing straight up, and to the touch, they very much felt like fungus. 6) Finally, on to the hens. I found a decaying stump last year than had a few rotting hens around it. When I went back today, it looked like the same rotten mushrooms were still there. How did these last an entire year? My mind was a little blown, but I did notice right next to some of the rotten meat that there is a very bright white structure under some of the rotten wood. Is this the underground structure that will eventually (hopefully) spawn a hen? Sorry for the poor image quality... And finally, I found about 3 of these tiny little structures starting to grow. I was hoping these could be the very beginnings of hens, but I have no idea. And that's it! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Smalldridge Posted September 12, 2014 Report Share Posted September 12, 2014 One looks like chanterelles. Photos of gills and spore prints for all these would be helpful. Two looks like cantharellus cinnabarinus. Three looks like oyster mushrooms. Not sure about four. Five is actually a plant called Indian pipe. The last few appear to be types of ramaria. These are just a guess based on the limited information provided. If you intend to collect for the table, I would suggest cleaning in the field to avoid getting debris on all your harvest. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Old Oak Posted September 12, 2014 Report Share Posted September 12, 2014 For #6: If they're around from last year they are probably black staining polypore. Hen's will completely break down. I've made the same mistake before. I don't know where you are, but it is still a little early in my area. They usually don't come around until late September or October. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coastwx Posted September 13, 2014 Report Share Posted September 13, 2014 Yes, most likely black staining polypore from a month or so ago. I found one in early July and the remnants were noticeable for a two months. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave W Posted September 13, 2014 Report Share Posted September 13, 2014 One possibility is that the hens fruited again this year, and then rotted again this year. Once a Grifola is mature, weather that is warm and wet can cause it to rot quickly. We had a flush of early hens here in PA, and there are now a few rotten ones here and there. But... difficult to say what's in the photo. The white stuff is likely not connected with Grifloa (hen). If the rotted remains consist of hard/rigid material, then I doubt it's Grifola. The small white cluster ("three tiny little sturctures") is an example of Tremellodendron, probably T. pallidum. These types have flesh that is more rigid/tough than true coral mushrooms. They sometimes cover a substantial area, but don't get very tall. They persist for long periods of time... weeks, even months. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Turick Posted September 13, 2014 Author Report Share Posted September 13, 2014 Thanks guys. John -- your IDs have been right on. I sampled the chantrelles and the oysters last night and they were good. The chantrelles were very salty and I think we liked they oysters the best. So could you go into more details about how you clean them in the field? Some were so dirty they weren't even worth cleaning. Also, I find it very difficult to tell which ones are bad and which ones are good. Some of them just want to crumble apart, some of them have the ridge structure on the underside just melt away when I try to wash the dirt off. There are some that have dark spots and and the stems were a bit funky on the inside, and I threw those out, but I'm just not sure if this is normal when cleaning them. I have some pictures from last year that are a little clearer that I posted of what I thought was a rotting hen. http://www.wildmushroomhunting.org/index.php/topic/772-my-rotten-trip/ So in that series from last year, the first picture was full of rotten fruit but not necessarily recognizable as a hen. It wasn't until I walked around the stump and found 2 more that were clearly old hens. Yesterday, I didn't see the 2 that were clearly old hens, I only saw the first one. If you look closely, at any given section of what was there, it looks just like a single layer of a hen... very leafy, however it wasn't altogether in one cluster very well and very rotten. So the first picture in my series of "hen" pictures from last year is the same as my rotten hen picture from yesterday. I'm guessing it's just that this one guy isn't really a hen. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Smalldridge Posted September 13, 2014 Report Share Posted September 13, 2014 Most of the time you will want to pick younger firmer mushrooms with no sign of bug infestation. This allows the older buggy ones to continue to release spores. I usually clean as I pick by using a knife to cut away the base of dirty stems and brush away as much debris as possible. Also I try not to pick mushrooms growing from bare soil as these will usually require quite a bit of effort to get clean. The process seems slow, but actually becomes second nature and does not slow down your harvesting much. It is much easier to field clean than to clean after a day harvesting. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Turick Posted September 13, 2014 Author Report Share Posted September 13, 2014 Sounds like very solid advice... thanks! Hey old oak -- I'm in St. Louis, MO. I figured it would be a bit early, but I saw guys further up north finding them and I just wanted to be absolutely sure I didn't miss the season again this year, so I went out early. I might just go every weekend through October now. It's so nice just to get out in the woods, even if I don't find any mushrooms. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Turick Posted September 13, 2014 Author Report Share Posted September 13, 2014 One possibility is that the hens fruited again this year, and then rotted again this year. Once a Grifola is mature, weather that is warm and wet can cause it to rot quickly. We had a flush of early hens here in PA, and there are now a few rotten ones here and there. But... difficult to say what's in the photo. The white stuff is likely not connected with Grifloa (hen). If the rotted remains consist of hard/rigid material, then I doubt it's Grifola. The small white cluster ("three tiny little sturctures") is an example of Tremellodendron, probably T. pallidum. These types have flesh that is more rigid/tough than true coral mushrooms. They sometimes cover a substantial area, but don't get very tall. They persist for long periods of time... weeks, even months. Too bad. I was really hoping it was the start of a few maitake! Thank you all so much for the info. Your knowledge astounds me Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ladyflyfsh Posted September 14, 2014 Report Share Posted September 14, 2014 Those last ones look like Tremellodendron pallidum. I saw lots of those in WV this summer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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