Tag Archives: Amanita

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El Niño impact on SAFF this summer

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Loblolly pine surrounded by Amanita jacksonii overlooking the cultivar seedlings planted last Fall at the bottom of North Trail.
Asimina triloba fruit hanging from the pawpaw tree at the bottom of the hill and across the waterway on the old clonal colony.

It sure has been hot and humid in Virginia these past weeks with near daily opportunities for thunderstorms. The heat index has been in the low 100s on most days. Saint Andrews Forest Farm has had a few good soaking rains. It’s not enough to offset the severe multi-month rainfall deficit and drought conditions. Nevertheless, we are beyond grateful. Until the onset of El Niño, we weren’t getting much rainfall. Since El Niño patterns began shifting the jet stream, we have had consistent moisture and opportunities for storms. Virginia feels more and more like a tropical rainforest. With the temporary seasonal increase in rainfall, our forest grows, mushrooms we haven’t seen for two years (since the last El Niño!) are fruiting, the creek burbles and flows.

We feel encouraged to begin building a water collection system for the farm as soon as possible. Although this short term impact of El Niño’s increased rainfall feels positive, the long term picture is really unknown. Better to be prepared for a future that includes alternating wet and dry years, and best to incorporate the presumption of drought into our planning.

The old snag finally fell in a storm last week.
From across the waterway, the snag laid down pretty gently.
Phaeolus schweinitzii, Dyer’s Polypore, found along Midhill Trail.
Eragrostis spectabilis, Purple Lovegrass, found on the hillside in the clearing up top.
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Camp weekend with mushrooms

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Suillus americanus, chicken fat mushroom or American slippery Jack, an edible found in multiple spots. We’ve not tried it.
Aureoboletus auriflammeus, flaming gold bolete, staining fingers orange. This is a young fruiting body.

We camped over the weekend at SAFF and not only did we see some cute critters but it was also a mushroom wonderland.

Amanita rubescens, blusher, with deadly lookalikes it’s not a beginner’s mushroom. They are abundant throughout the farm and are always eaten by bugs or animals. Need to be thoroughly cooked for 15-20 minutes to break down a dangerous hemolytic protein toxin. Foragers say it has a mild, nutty pleasant flavor. Some compare it to a mild meat or beef like richness. So far, we can only hope to find a good looking blusher to bring home and cook.
Xanthoconium seperans, lilac bolete, a prized choice edible in the porcini family.
Leccinum aurantiacum, red capped scaber stalk, found all over but heavily in the north pine and oak forest.
Saturday foray from SAFF includes Frost’s boletes, Amanita banningiana and jacksonii. Chanterelles and lilac boletes. We also found one Lactarius indigo.
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Monday Mushrooms at SAFF

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Almost another inch in the rain gauge. We feel so grateful.
Gliophorus psittacinus, Parrot mushroom or Parrot waxcap, is gelatinous with a radially grooved convex cap. We hadn’t seen these before. Beautiful!
Russula vinacea is another we hadn’t observed before.

Since Sunday turned into a full work day with no energy left for a walk through the woods, we decided to go back over last night for a walk. We are glad we did! We saw some mushrooms we’d never seen before. We were astonished by how many types were fruiting. Russulas are especially having their time with all of the rain.

Clavulina coralloides, white coral fungus, found along Deerberry Trail.
Amanita jacksonii also on Deerberry Trail.
Lactifluus volemus, weeping milk cap, a choice edible we brought home.
And finally, we saw plenty of these Cantharellus cinnabarinus all over. These vibrant red edible mushrooms cover hillsides at the farm.
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A Sunday Workday with Mushrooms

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Cyanocitta cristata, Blue Jay feather, found along Red Hawk Road.
Lycoperdon marginatum, Peeling Puffball, found up top in the main clearing. They were small and cute. We left them for a woodland creature to snack on later.
Calvatia cyathiformis, Purple-spored Puffball, is a large edible purple spored mushroom that comes up in groups at the top of Red Hawk Trail when the temperature and rainfall and just the right environmental conditions occur. Primarily seen late summer into fall after soaking rains or wet periods. They are edible when young and completely white inside. After they change color internally, they are sporing and inedible. We were stunned by the mosaic scales they each have.
A mature Calvatia cyathiformis with an opening used to release spores. As it matures, the solid white interior breaks down into a dark purple powdery spore mass. We thought it looked like a giant sea urchin.
Multiple holes formed on surface will emit spores when wind, rain or passing animals compress the mushroom. We thought this looked like a brain.

We went over and got a few chores done. The temperature was a cool-feeling 84 Degrees Fahrenheit. We got the scaffolding up on the tiny house. We’re excited to have our plans coming together.

Calvatia cyathiformis broken open to see bugs have been eating it and the white solid inside becoming darker powdery spores.
We got 2 levels of scaffolding up and it went up quickly.
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Fun fungi Friday at SAFF

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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.

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Wednesday Walk at SAFF with Mushrooms

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2 inches of rain this week! What a dream come true.
Amanita polypyramis, Plateful of Pyramids Lepidella, named after the pyramid like warts on the cap. We found these on Mary Banning Way up top near the driveway. It’s poisonous and smells like chlorine.
Chris surrounded by multiple types of mushrooms on Chanterelle Trail.
We found our first chanterelle in two years just a few feet away.
We found multiple Lactarius species including this Lactarius psammicola.
Lactarius psammicola, underside view with lactation from the gills.
Trametes cinnabarina, Northern Cinnabar Polypore, found up top on a conifer.
Sabatia angularis, Rosepink, flowering in the woods, clearings and on trails.
Amanita jacksonii, an edible found near Three Pine Trail.
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Amanitas and boletes at SAFF with smoke

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Wildfire smoke and haze obstructing the view of Afton Mountain on the drive home last night.
Over an inch of rain in the gauge. We hadn’t checked it when there on Tuesday. The rain was from last weekend. We were happy to see it.

When driving over to the farm we saw smoke from the wildfires up north settling in around the mountains and hills. We wore our masks while outside to protect our lungs from any fine particulate. We had farm chores aplenty yesterday afternoon and also took time to have a mushroom walk.

Found on Amanita Way right off of the main clearing. They turned a lovely blue quite quickly.
Because of the way it turned blue, it could be Ink Stain Bolete, Cyanoboletus pulverulentis, Sensible bolete or Lanmaoa/Baorangia.

As we drove up to SAFF, we saw mushrooms right away on both sides of the driveway so we knew we’d have to walk through the woods.

Amanita flavorubens, Yellow American Blusher, is edible after being thoroughly cooked. Foragers note it tastes similar to lobster or prawns after cooking. We haven’t tried these yet. We usually find them already nibbled on and bug infested which probably means they’re delicious. Insects and animals know which ones are safe and tasty.
Unidentified bolete with a small bite gone.
Hazy, smoky sunlight filtering through ripening the pawpaw fruit in the old clonal colony.
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A Tuesday afternoon mushroom walk

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Wolfina aurantiopsis, a rare cup fungus found in oak and pine forests on decaying hardwood sticks. It was found on Dan’s Folly along the south set back line in dark woods.

It’s been extra busy lately and we are feeling lucky to get a chance to run over to SAFF and take a walk around. We have gotten near daily rain for which we are grateful. Each time we’ve gone we’ve seen the pawpaws are doing well. Almost all of the grafts are producing leaves. We’ve also seen a few interesting mushrooms which is thrilling.

Amanita rhopalopus, American Club-Footed Lepidella. Mycorrhizal with oak and pine. It’s very large with warts and a strong chlorine smell.
Cladonia furcata, many forked Cladonia, along Ridge Trail. A species of lichen with intermediate sensitivity to air pollution. Extracts of this species kill leukemia cells and have potential value in the treatment of cancer.
Leucobryum glaucum, Pincushion Moss, bright green from the recent rain, is a common moss of eastern North America and Europe that we find all over SAFF.

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Rainy Sunday Grafting Pawpaws

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Chris grafting a Cawood cultivar onto the native SAFF Pawpaw Peninsula Asimina triloba.
Maria’s Joy at the tip of the Pawpaw Peninsula.

On Sunday we went straight over to the Southside Gully to begin grafts on the native patch. We got 7 done before a downpour stopped us. We grafted Nyomi’s Delicious, Maria’s Joy, Rebecca’s Gold, Cawood, Tallahatchie, sunflower and Pa Golden #4. We were glad to get out of there as we lost count of all the ticks we caught crawling up our pant legs. All were Lonestar Ticks, Amblyomma americanum. Personally, the experience may help me be less preoccupied with my anxiety since I saw them and got them off without freaking out. We had no bites. They hadn’t dropped from anywhere. They were just crawling on our shoes and pantlegs. Anyway, we waited the rain out in the car while we had a snack.

A bit of our walk through the Southside at SAFF in the rain yesterday.

After the rain stopped, we headed down Central Trail through the cultivar and seedling orchard. They looked good we were pleased to see. We made our way to the Pawpaw Peninsula across from the Old Clonal Colony. We grafted 10 more onto the native wild SAFF pawpaws. We grafted Rappahanock, Tallahatchie, Marias Joy, Nyomis Delicious, Prolific, Rebecca’s Gold, Cawood, 166-66 Canary and PA Golden #4. It drizzled some while we worked.

No baby bear sightings yesterday but we looked for them everywhere. We did find this Amanita jacksonii, Jackson’s slender Caesar, a choice edible and all around beautiful fruiting body. It was growing underneath a big loblolly pine on a small bluff overlooking the cultivar seedlings on Poplar Hill Trail.

Chris doing a cleft graft with Rebecca’s Gold on Pawpaw Peninsula wild native SAFF.
Grafting Southside Sally and her gang in the gully with 7 different cultivars.

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Amanitas at SAFF on Thursday afternoon

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Amanita parcivolvata, the ringless false fly Amanita or False Caesar’s mushroom. This is edible but avoided by many because of its poisonous lookalikes.
Amanita banningiana, known as the yellow Caesar or Mary Banning’s slender Caesar. It is prized for its taste but caution is advised due to deadly lookalikes.
Amanita canescens, Golden threads Lepidella, grows near oaks. Found up top in the main clearing. Inedible.

What a great day we had yesterday at SAFF. We went over to check out how much rain the farm had gotten. The gauge was at .2 which is better than none. But much less than the 1.9 inches our weather app reported. Nevertheless, we still had mushrooms growing. Even some we hadn’t seen before. It was like a dream come true.

The pawpaw fruit in the old clonal colony is getting bigger. We are planning a trip to see what pawpaws are doing in our foraging spots along the Rockfish River soon.

Xanthoconium purpureum, found growing under an oak up top in the main clearing. It’s edible although this one has been claimed by bugs.
Small bolete popping up on Chanterelle Trail we hope to see mature.