11 Questions Mushroom Hunters Hear ALL the Time – And A Few Suggested Answers

Editor’s Note: Well, I’ve gone and done it again and started several different series of blog posts and haven’t really tied up all my loose ends. There’s the ongoing series about the storied past of mycophiles around the globe, the Read More

Amanita Muscaria and the Koryak – Mushrooms in Siberia

Editor’s Note: Amanita muscaria, AKA the fly agaric mushroom, has made a couple of appearances on this blog to date, in large part because it’s one of the most recognizable mushrooms in the world and has a loyal following among mushroom Read More

A Quick Tour of the Tylopilus Genus

Editor’s Note: This post will focus on the mushroom genus Tylopilus, which contains some intriguing and very pretty mushrooms. Tylopilus mushrooms are common in the eastern United States, although there are a some species that occur in the western U.S. as well. This is the Read More

The Shaggy Stalked Bolete, Heimioporus Betula

Editor’s Note: Although I love to focus on great edible mushrooms on this blog, for some time I have been planning to delve more into the aesthetically pleasing mushrooms that, for one reason or another, are not often to be Read More

Damien Pack on Mushroom Cultivation

Editor’s Note: I’ve been really enjoying digging through the audio archives of the radio documentary I did about mushroom people in 2011, Crazy About Mushrooms, and I wanted to present another story that I got from one of my most intriguing interviewees, a mushroom Read More

Pleurotus Dryinus, the Veiled Oyster Mushroom

Editor’s Note: In my effort to catalog some of our more common North Carolina and eastern U.S. mushrooms, I have done little to touch on the varied species in the genus Pleurotus, which are generally called “oyster mushrooms.” Oyster mushrooms are one Read More

Amanita Jacksonii, the Eastern Caesar's Amanita

Editor’s Note: Correction: In the first publication of this blog, I mistakenly used a photograph of Amanita frostiana by Eric Smith and attributed it to a different Mushroom Observer user; I sincerely apologize for this error and have added the photo I Read More

Mushrooms Are Sexy Part II – Fungi Are Everywhere!

Editor’s Note: This is the second in a two-part series about the history of mycology and the basics of fungal reproduction. If you’re interested in learning more about how sexy mushrooms can be, take a look at the last post. Read More

Mushrooms Are Sexy Part I – A Spore to Shroom View of Fungal Bio

Editor’s Note: Well, I’ve managed to go more than a week without posting to this blog, and the reason is simple but a little reprehensible; you see, it’s officially chanterelle mushroom season in North Carolina, and all the time I Read More

Hericium Mushrooms of the Eastern United States

Editor’s Note: Of all the mushrooms that grow in the eastern United States, few outstrip the Hericium mushrooms in terms of beauty and excellent flavor. These mushrooms are also very likely to cause significant heartache among mushroom hunters who find Hericium mushrooms growing high Read More