Tag Archives: mushrooms

Sarcodon Has Been Spotted

Kamloops Naturalist Club Posted on by
Submitted by Gary Hunt

This article is from last summer but we are seeing it again in our region.

In spite of the extreme heat we have been experiencing, mushrooms continue to appear in our surrounding forested areas. North-facing slopes and moist gullies can yield fun surprises even during extreme heat waves.

One striking example I encountered yesterday at McConnell Lake is Sarcodon imbricatus, aka the Shingled Hedgehog. The mushroom has a large, brown cap, up to 30 cm in diameter, covered with large brown scales. The cap is depressed in the middle. The underside reveals grey, brittle teeth instead of gills. The spore print is brown.

Sarcodon imbricatus, the shingled hedgehog. Photo by Gary Hunt

Continue reading →

Wildflowers That Subvert Fungi to Steal Food

Kamloops Naturalist Club Posted on by

There have been reports of Striped Coralroot recently so I will repost this story from April of last year.

There is a group of wildflowers that have learned how to cheat photosynthesis. This allows them to simplify physical structure and eliminate the work of making chlorophyll and their own food. It confers a significant survival advantage in low-light forest conditions.

Continue reading →

Fungi Forever

Kamloops Naturalist Club Posted on by

We have been having a bonus year for mushrooms and fungi in our area. I will add some photos from two recent trips that I have taken. The first will be from October 8 when I visited McConnell Lake in the rain and the second will be from The KNC field trip on October 14 led by Gary Hunt to the Scuitto Lake Forest Service Road south of Barnhartvale.  For many species, I won’t have names or if I do, they need to be verified by an expert, so it … Continue reading →

Mushroom Mania

Kamloops Naturalist Club Posted on by

The wet fall has certainly been a boon to mushroom enthusiasts, especially in the Douglas Fir forests and above. I have even seen mushrooms sprouting in our driest grasslands. While I am not very experienced at identifying mushrooms and related organisms, I have been fortunate to have the kindly guidance of Gary Hunt from our club as well as Jim Ginns, polypore expert from the Okanagan to put some names to some of the mushrooms found in this article. Some will remain unnamed because my photos do not show the … Continue reading →

Some Mushrooms You Might Encounter Now

Kamloops Naturalist Club Posted on by

Thank-you to Doug Smith for submitting these photos from a recent trip he took to the Wells Gray region. We are on the cusp of the fall mushroom fruiting season so be on the lookout wherever you are hiking. Even though we are still in the dry season, mushrooms will be emerging at higher elevations and on North slopes or near water at lower levels.  

Continue reading →

The Ink Caps: Mushrooms That Dissolve Into Black Ink

Kamloops Naturalist Club Posted on by

Welcome to Mushroom Monday for April 30, 2018 With the recent appearance of a few species of ink cap mushrooms, we can expect to see them through the summer and fall. The big majority of ink cap mushrooms (called the coprinoid fungi) share the unusual feature of having gills that digest themselves at maturity producing a liquid mass of black spores. Some of the liquid drips to the ground and infiltrates the soil and some dries on the mushroom cap and is wind dispersed. If insects land on the liquid … Continue reading →