A young red Russula. These are nearly impossible to identify as there are hundreds of Russula species featuring red, pink or crimson caps. Colors change under certain weather conditions. With this one species, if you do a spit test and it’s spicy, it needs to be cooked thoroughly before eaten. If not, it can be eaten raw, although you really want to cook everything you’ve gotten from the forest floor, in my humble opinion. Russula crustosa, Green Quilt Russula, or the crusty Russula, is an edible mushroom known for its dry cracked mosaic-like cap in shades of yellow, tan or grayish green with white gills and stem. We found it up top on Dan’s Folly. It’s mycorrhizal with oaks and hardwoods. Russula parvovirescens, Blue Green Cracking Russula is considered a choice edible for its nutty taste. The cap looks like a quilt or stained glass and is particularly striking to find lying on the forest floor. Amanita flavoconia, Yellow patches, found near the top of A. Jacksonii Gully. Inedible as far as we know. Lovely to see. Retiboletus ornatipes, Ornate-stalked Bolete or gold stalk, is technically edible but usually bug infested. Boletus separans, lilac bolete, we wish we’d found a few days earlier. These are scrumptious.Pasimachus, warrior beetles, on the south side near Black Trumpet Way. They were fighting.
Saint Andrews Forest Farm 