Gomphus Clavatus – The Pig's Ear Mushroom

Editor’s Note: Today’s post will look at the pig’s ear mushroom, Gomphus clavatus. This is a bit of a weirdo mushroom and not everyone likes eating it, but I have had good experiences with this mushroom on the whole. It’s kind of 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

Mycophiles – A Worldwide Confederacy of Awesome

Editor’s Note: This post is the latest article in an ongoing series I am writing about the history of mycophiles (mushroom-lovers) around the globe. Although not as targeted as my past posts on the Red Lady of el Miron, the Read More

A Quick Tour of the Amanita Genus

Editor’s Note: This post was inspired by a reader who suggested that I take a bit of time on this blog to explain how to determine the genus of different sorts of mushrooms. One of the best approaches to learning wild mushroom Read More

Chanterelle Hunting Tips – Where to Find NC Chanterelle Mushrooms

Editor’s Note: This is the fourth in a series of posts about chanterelle hunting in North Carolina. Chanterelle hunting season will likely kick off in a few weeks’ time, when we have some days that are consistently in the mid-80s and Read More

Chanterelle Mushroom Lookalikes – Pick The Right Mushrooms!

Editor’s Note: This post is a second in a series about collecting chanterelle mushrooms in North Carolina. The last post presented an overview of North Carolina’s large, yellow-gold chanterelle species, so if you want identification tips and a little background Read More

Chanterelle Hunting in North Carolina and Beyond

Editor’s Note: Well, it’s springtime here in North Carolina, and the black morels (Morchella angusticeps) should start appearing soon, followed by yellow morels (Morchella esculentoides, Morchella diminutiva, and Morchella virginiana). This means that groves of tulip poplar, ash, hickory, and American elm are pretty much the Read More

Fly Agaric (Amanita Muscaria) Mushrooms – A Cautionary Tale

Let me tell you a little story about a woman who accidentally went on an Amanita muscaria trip; I interviewed her in 2011 at the Sonoma County Mycological Association’s annual retreat near Occidental, California, and she told me straight off that “I’m Read More

Old Man of the Woods Mushroom, Strobilomyces Floccopus

One of North America’s most unusual edible wild mushrooms is called Strobilomyces floccopus, which is a dark, scurfy fungus that is gray-white with tufts of black hair on the cap and a fine layer of dark fur on the mushroom’s Read More