A couple of late-season edibles

[Dave W]

A member of our local mushroom club invited me to hunt Tricholoma portentosum in a mature pine stand on his property. These gray Trichs are really tasty, but are possibly confused with any of a host of conifer-loving gray Trichs, some of which are bitter and/or are sickeners.

A couple years ago my wife and I found a really good spot for Cantharellula umbonata, aka. the Grayling. What these little guys lack in size they make up for in quantity. We gathered over a pound in about half an hour. Always found in haircap moss, usually near conifers.

These may be confused with Clitocybe trullaeformis or Lactarius griseus.

http://www.rogersmushrooms.com/gallery/DisplayBlock~bid~5807~gid~~source~gallerydefault.asp

http://www.rogersmushrooms.com/gallery/DisplayBlock~bid~6235~gid~~source~gallerydefault.asp

There are also other Lactarius species that look somewhat like these. L. hibbardae (=L. mammosus) comes to mind. The telling feature for the Grayling is the multiply-forked gills that develop veins and reddish stains in age and the pointed umbo (not always seen) atop the cap.

[vitog]

Thanks for the information, Dave. Apparently, both of these mushrooms occur in southwestern BC, where I live; though I've never tried to locate or identify them. That seems like a good project now that I've retired. I see lots of gray Trichs at this time of year.

Here on the west coast, the most abundant late season good edible is the Winter Chaterelle, Craterellus tubaeformis, which is now readily available and should be good until we have an arctic air outflow. I've also been finding some quite young Hedgehog mushrooms, Hydnum repandum; so they will be around for a while still.