Volume 33 Issue 5
Fall Foray at Dawes Arboretum
The fall foray this year will be held at Dawes Arboretum on Oct. 1 & 2. Dawes has a wonderful collection of gardens, trees, and landscapes. You might want to make time to see the Japanese Garden, the Cypress Swamp, and roam about learning to identify trees and birds. Dawes Arboretum is located 35 miles east of Columbus, OH on Ohio S.R. 13, 3 miles north of I-70 (Exit 132) or 5 miles s. of Newark.
The Schedule:
Fri. Evening Sept. 30, 7:00 till ?? Socializing & refreshments at the Jacktown Pub, at the intersection of state rtes. 13 and 40, Jacksontown OH, just south of Dawes Arboretum.
Saturday 9:00 Orientation, Refreshments/
Janet & Sharon at the Dawes Visitor Center.
9:30, 10:00 and 10:30 Forays Depart Flint Ridge forayers will
need permits and car tags
We will need a leader for the Flint Ridge forays, which can include
only a limited number of forayers.
12:30 Forays return
12:30-1:30 Lunch (potluck covered dish. Kitchen facilities available in nature center and at farmhouse.
1:30 - 2:15 Joe Strong Slide Program on his long term study of mushroom species in a local Elyria park.
2:30 Afternoon Forays Depart
4:30 Forays Return
5:30 Review Collections
6:00 Dinner at a restaurant to be announced
Sunday 9:00 view collections
9:30 Walt Sturgeon Slide Program Big Fleas,
Little Fleas, mushrooms & their habitats
10:30 Forays Depart
12:30 Forays Return
1:00-3:00 Public Invited to view collections
3:00 Clean up and depart.
Accomodations: As of this writing (9/20), Holiday Inn Express (740/522-0770) and Quality Inn (740/522-1165) still had rooms, Amerihost (740/928-1800) was full. There are several smaller motels along SR 79 (Hebron Rd.) For campers, there is a KOA at Buckeye Lake (740/928-0706).
by Pauline Munk & Dave Miller
Our species list for the foray follows. The first three lists
include specimens brought from wetter climes by the esteemed members whose
names head each of these lists.
As I work to get this into shape, the remnants of Katrina have
dropped nearly 3 inches of rain in the Oberlin area. This will be
the last year I teach Fungi here at Oberlin and it looks like my class’s
mushroom season will start with a definite bang! I may have to tear
myself away from this task to visit some of my favorite “suburban” mushroom
haunts!
I’ve organized these into “informal” = not taxonomically kosher,
groupings, for ease of checking out what species are in the collection.
So, for instance, even though Schizophyllum commune is NOT a polypore,
I’ve included it amongst these, because as David Arora says, by way of
doing the same, “it looks like a polypore.” Such reasoning is fraught
with dangers…perhaps some of you remember that, back in 1920, Warren G.
Harding, another Ohio boy was running for office, when someone objected
that he had few qualifications for becoming the U.S. president, was defended
by another pol saying that “he looked like he ought to be President.”
Agarics
Cantharellus applachiensis
Laccaria laccata
Lactarius psammicola
Lactarius volemus
Paxillus atrotomentosus
Russula variata
Boletes
Boletus fraternus
Boletus hortonii
Boletus innixus
Boletus rhodosanguinus
Boletus sensibilis
Boletus subvelutipes
Phylloporus rodoxanthus
Tylopilus violatinctus
Boletes
Boletus nobilis
Gyroporus castaneus Chestnut Bolete
Leccinum scabrum complex
Polypores
Bondarzewia berkeleyi
Meripilus sumstinei
Phellinus gilvus
Polyporus craterellus
Polyporus varius = elegans
Stereum complicatum
Thelephora terrestris
Trametes elegans
Trichaptum biformis
Tyromyces chioneus
Corals
Clavicorona pyxidata
Sparassis spathulata
Jellies
Calocera cornea
Ascomycetes
Apiosporina morbosa
Scutellinia scutellata
Agarics
Amanita flavorubescens
Paxillus atrotomentosus
Boletes
Phyllorporus rhodoxanthus
Tylopilus alboater
Tylopilus violatinctus
Agarics
Russula modesta
R. virescens
R. sp.
R. vinacea
R. compacta
R. ochroleucoides
R. modesia
Amanita brunnescens
Amanita vaginata group
Pleurotus ostreatus
Megacollybia platyphylla
Mycena leiana
Xerula furfuracea
Xeromphalina tenuipes
Laccaria laccata
Pluteus petasatus
Pluteus atricapillus=cervinus
P. atricapillis
P. seticeps
P. sp.
Coprinus variegatus
Polypores
Polyporus varius
P. mori
P. squamosus
Trichaptum biformis
Ganoderma applanatum
Meripilus sumstinei (giganteus)
Tyromyces chioneus
Daedaleopsis confragosa
Stereum ostrae
Hapalopilus rutilans
Phellinus fracinopholou
Trametes versicolor
Boletes
Boletus innixus
Boletus roxanae
Boletus variipes
Gyrodon merulioides
Corals
Clavicorona pyxidata
Puffballs
Scleroderma citrina
Ascomycetes
Hypomyces hyalinis
Xylaria longipes(?)
Slime Molds
Fuligo septica
Stemonitis sp.
Agarics
Amanita aestavalis =brunnescens var. pallida
Amanita vaginata
Gymnopilus sp.
Marasmius rotula
Megacollybia platyphyla
Mycena leaiana
Mycena sp.
Pluteus longistriatus
Pluteus sp.
Russula sp.
Russula virescens
Polypores
Ganoderma applanatum
Piptoporus betulinus
Polyporus squamosus
Polyporus varius
Polyporus mori
Schizophyllum commune
Trametes versicolor
Trichaptum biformis
Ascomycetes
Chlorociboria aerugiascens
Slime Molds
Fuligo septica
Santa Claus is really a complex personality. One part is the old North
European pagan goblin, the spirit of our ancestors. He was living on the
farms - preferably in the cow-houses or stables - protecting the animals
and crop from evil ghosts. However, he demanded that the farmer should
serve him bread or porridge from the best part of the harvest every midwinter
eve. If not, he would be very nasty! Usually he is depicted as a little,
square-built, bearded man wearing knickers, knife, and a red cap. In Scandinavia,
Father Christmas is often depicted more like the pagan
goblin than Santa Claus.
Another and more direct antecedent is Saint Nicholas
(271-343), an archbishop born in Patara in Lycia, south-west
Turkey. He was kind to children and poor people, offering them gifts. He
also performed all
kinds of miracles: averted famine, saved children from being boiled
etc. Emperor
Justinian built the first church in honour to Nicholas. The archbishop
was canonized in the ninth century. Saint Nicholas was patron of Russia,
Greece, Germany, Austria, France, Belgium, the
Netherlands, and Sicily. He was the protector of the downtrodden and
the desperate, even thieves and murderers. At various times he has also
been patron saint of fishermen, sailors, virgins, students, and merchants.
For more than three centuries, from late 1100 to mid 1500 when the Protestant
Reformation began, St. Nicholas was the foremost saint in Europe. Popes,
Czars, and even Commissars (Nikita) have been named for him. In 1972, the
mortal remains of Nicholas, no longer a saint according to the 1969 report
to Pope Paul IV, were donated to the Greek Orthodox shrine of St. Nicholas
in Flushing, New York. In catholic lands, the day St. Nicholas died, December
6, is still celebrated as the day of
Nicholas, and the children get Christmas gifts. This tradition possibly began in France as early as 1200.
The Protestants tried to abandon the St. Nicholas day, but the tradition
of a gift-beari
ng, child-protecting figure with roots in Roman and pagan midwinter
rites remained disguised as Father Christmas, Père Noël, or
Weihnachtsmann. This figure had, in the beginning, more in common with
the goblin, but gradually it mixed ancient rites with Christian traditions
and became a rather evil looking creature, called Black Peter or Schwarz
Peter. He was robed in a black or red mantle, had horns, fiery eyes, and
a long, red tongue. He discovered children who had been naughty during
the year and punished them. Today this tradition still lives when children
visit neighbors and relatives during Christmas days disguised as goats
or other
creatures.
In Central Europe from 1400 to 1600 it was common that a man dressed
like St. Nicholas visited
the homes on December 6 or Christmas Eve, often followed by the vicious
Black Peter. The first gave gifts to the kind children, the second punished
the bad children or gave them birch rods instead of gifts. In time these
two figures became one person, Rough Nicholas or Ru Klaus. In the
beginning a fearsome character traveling alone, he frightened the children,
yet bestowed the kind ones with Christmas gifts. Then he became more and
more kind and gradually developed to Santa Claus, a "secular St. Nicholas",
usually depicted as a stooped, old man with a long, white beard, carrying
a basket or sack filled with toys and candy on his back. Our modern looking
Santa Claus was eventually released in USA designed by Coca Cola in the
1930s.
Santa Claus literally consists of three personalities; the pagan goblin,
St. Nicholas, and Black Pete, but still there are some peculiar features:
Why is he robed in red and white, enters and leaves by the chimney, carries
the gifts in a sack, can fly, has reindeer, and lives on the North Pole?
None of these features can be traced back to the mentioned three figures.
The first travellers to Siberia observed that many tribes used Fly Agaric
as a drug. They were shocked by the custom that the urine of those intoxicated
by the toadstools was collected in bowls or skin bags, to be drunk later.
Specially the poorer classes, who could not devote time to gather the toadstool,
regularly drank the urine of the better-off for a little light relief.
Reindeer also have a taste for the Fly Agaric. When the Swedish explorer,
Georg Steller, visited Kamchatka in 1739 he noted that reindeer were sometimes
intoxicated. The Koryak people tied up such animals until their condition
subsided. Then they killed them. All who ate the flesh became intoxicated.
Jonathan Ott, an American mycologist, suggested in 1976 that the use of
the Fly Agaric in the midwinter festivals of deepest Siberia may have inspired
some of the modern features of Santa Claus. The Siberian winter dwelling,
or yurt, had a smokehole in the roof, supported by a birch pole. At the
midwinter festivals, the shaman would enter the yurt through the smokehole,
carrying a sack with dried Fly Agaric or urine from already intoxicated
people, perform his ceremonies, and ascend the birch pole and leave. Ordinary
people believed that the shaman could fly, either himself or on flying
reindeer. Therefore, Santa Claus is robed in red and white, the colour
of the Fly Agaric; enters the chimney; can fly in a reindeer sleigh; carries
the gift in a sack; and lives on the North Pole. The remote areas in Siberia
are as good as the North Pole for Central Europeans. Moreover, in Central
Europe the Fly Agaric is linked with chimney sweeps, who have adopted it
as their emblem, perhaps echoing the Siberian ritual.
The Fly Agaric has appeared on Christmas cards in Central Europe for
a long time. In Kocevje, in the southern parts of former Yugoslavia, people
believe that on Christmas night, Wotan, the king of the gods (same as the
Norse Odin), rides through the woods on a white horse, pursued by devils.
The red and white spots of foam from the horse's mouth fall to the ground
and grow into next year's fruitbodies of Fly Agaric.
Suggested reading:
Morgan, A. 1987. Who put the toad in toadstool? - New Sci. No 1540:
44-47.
Wasson, R.G. and Wasson, V.P. 1957. Mushrooms, Russia, and History. - Pantheon Books, New York.
Eds. Note: this Article appeared under somewhat mysterious circumstances in my email INBOX one recent day, and even though I wasn’t able to get a satisfactory attribution as to its author(s), I decided to run it for your edification. Besides, it’s never too early to start planning for the holidays!
By Dick Grimm
I'm not the guy to talk about polypores. I was never much interested
in them and I'm not exactly sure why. Most mycophagists ignore them because
they’re mostly inedible and because they vary from tough and corky to hard
as a rock. A boiled boot would tenderize faster than a polypore. I'm misleading
you already because there are some polypores that tickle the palate in
a friendly manner and others reasonably good ... if you're starving to
death.
If you want to backslide about 30 years and make things much easier
on yourself you can call any polypore ... a polypore. Never mind the plague
of name changing, of which, at the present time, polypores probably head
the list. If they grow on wood and the underside is covered with pores
and not gills (by the way these pores are fastened and cannot be removed)
you can assume you have a polypore. Now that's about as broad a statement
as one can make, but simplicity is always my goal when I talk about mushrooms.
The problem you will encounter with this bit of advice is that you won't
be able to read modem literature about polypores, which I'm not sure is
accidental, but we won't get into that. Anyhow, if you're into lumping,
which certainly relieves the brain and the Latin speaking tongue, just
call 'em all polypores.
Now that that's settled allow me to discuss with you what I know about polypores, which you could scribe on the hymenial layer of a very small artist fungus. The "artist fungus" is that perennial, shelving conk we often see growing on the sides of trees. They can range in size from a few inches to a couple of feet. They are typically white (ish) on the outer edge and if you look closely at the topside you will notice, too, that they are perennial and grow in annual sections adding a section each consecutive year. The top is typically brown and the whole is as hard as badly made biscuits ... even harder! Although they are probably not poisonous, it would take a goat a month to devour this stone.
The neat thing about Polyporus applanatus (I'll use the Latin Species name so we won't get completely lost, even though that is probably outdated, too. (not yet, the current name is Ganoderma applanatum, ed. note) is that on the underside, when fresh, we find the hymenial layer a snowy white invitation to scratch out any type of drawing, or message, one cares to impose. It works like a "Magic Pad" so you don't need a pencil. Just a twig or any reasonably pointed, hard device. A knife, a key or even a long fingernail. It sounds a bit goofy, but I've seen some beautiful pictures scribed on these fungi by those who can draw beautiful pictures. Especially, nature scenes are very apropos.
When you're hunting Morels, especially in an old Elm habitat, you will no doubt come across "dryad's saddle." As you may know, a Dryad (Druid) is a creature that lives on the inside of a tree. They only come out at night, so I am told, and apparently they enjoy sitting on these soft polypores whilst they observe whatever it is Dryads observe. As with the polypores, I'm not well versed on Dryads, or druids ... or whatever, either.
Polyporus squamosus gets its Latin name from the dark brown squamules (scales) scattered about over a rather suede texture of the cap surface, which is a contrasting beige. Some people eat these, probably because they didn't find any morels and don't want to go home empty handed. If you wish to do so, you don't have to clutter your collecting basket with them. If you are an accomplished point guard, you can just dribble them back to the car.
Dryad's saddle comes in assorted sizes. I suppose Mother Nature composed the sizes to accommodate the varied span of Dryad butts they would need to fit. If you do decide to eat one, (that's the saddle I'm referring to) choose several very, very small ones. They are tenderer than the larger types. Sautee' them slowly with bacon. Then throw them away and eat the bacon.
A fresh fruiting of "sulfur shelf, is a tough thing to look at if you
forgot your camera. The usually massive gathering of large fruiting bodies
dressed in orange and yellow is a sight to behold. I'm sure that those
of you who have discovered such a bonanza will agree. Polyporus sulphureus
(current name is Laetiporus sulfureus, ed. note) is found in a shelving
habit, one above the other, when it grows from the side of a tree, either
fallen or standing. When growing from the top of a stump or an underground,
wood host, they typically form a rosette stature. They fruit most of the
summer and into the fall if the weather conditions are favorable. They
have the label, "chicken of the woods" as a common name, as well. I don't
believe this means they taste like chicken (because they don't). I believe
the name is derived from the stringy texture and looks if one gets too
far towards the back of the cap. It resembles the white meat of chicken.
It also tastes of wood from that location. Use the margin, about an inch
or less in from the outer edge. This polypore is good cooked with bacon.
Most polypores are best if cooked slowly. You can eat both the Sulfur shelf
and the bacon on this one.
Don't leave the table! I have another one for you. Polyporus frondosus.
(Currently, Grifola frondosus, ed.) This one also gets the chicken handle
as a common name "Hen of the woods." Also some call it "Sheepshead" Whoever
erected that name must have been from central New York City and had never
seen a sheep. Call the vet! This sheep is sick. Maybe after a few shots
of bourbon I could see the resemblance. Anyhow, P. frondosus is another
of the soft polypores that can be cooked to eat. Along with being a suitable
dish it is also supposedly very medicinal. It is said to enhance the immune
system. I won't get into natural foods here because I am a doubting Thomas
from Missouri and I need proof of the porridge.
P .frondosus is found at the base of oak trees, either white or red.
My discoveries have always been at the base of red oak (Quercus rubra)
but I have mushrooming friends that have found it under the white oak tree.
I have two reports of it growing under other trees, but I am wondering
if perhaps an old red oak stump may have gone unnoticed near by. Oops!
There's that doubting Thomas syndrome again. The Sheepshead returns year
after year in the same location. So does anyone else you reveal your location
to ... ahead of you, usually. Don't mix P frondosus with the very twin
like Polypous gigantia. The latter usually grows around old stumps and
is very twin like to mature P. frondosus. Separate them with the fact that
the pores of P. gigantia bruise black when injured (press your thumb hard
against the pores; then give it a few minutes).
I want to mention the beautiful Polyporus tsugae (currently Ganoderma
tsugae) for the simple reason it is so unique. It appears so shiny and
varnished it looks phony; like a painted sculpture. The hemlock polypore
only grows on Tsuga, thus the sp.name. Tsugae is the Latin name for hemlock.
P. tsugae has a long supporting stem and a broad spathulate cap. Hold up
your hamburger spatula flip side down. Mentally shorten the handle a bit
and fatten the flipper part about an inch. Paint it all vivid reddish brown
with the accent on brown. Now, varnish it with high gloss, oil base varnish.
There you have it ... Well, sort of. Perhaps you can finish the project
by sticking it in a fallen hemlock trunk. Ah ... beautiful!
Polypores fit into two categories, white wood rotters and brown wood
rotters. Wood is composed of lignin and cellulose. Cellulose is found in
all plants including trees. But in addition, trees also have the compound,
lignin, which is the ingredient that stabilizes wood. Thus, when we say
a mushroom is lignicolous it means ligni = the ingredient that binds wood
by interacting with the cellulose, and colous which simply means to grow
among, or with.
The majority of the polypores are white wood rotters. They have the
capability of breaking down both lignin and cellulose. Because much cellulose
remains from the rot the stringy pork tenderloin - type wood that remains
is whitish to pale in color, and stringy.
Brown wood rotters, on the other hand, can only imbibe and digest the cellulose and leave lignin untouched. The remaining scraps at the table are typically square or blocky lumps of brown wood. Our artist fungi mentioned above is a white rot fungus whereas the sulphur shelf is a brown rot fungus. Different species of polypores are relegated to only one of the two categories; they are either brown rot fungi or white rot fungi.
I have only touched on the edible polypores of distinction and a couple of others you are certain to encounter here in Ohio. There are dozens of polypores. Take the time to learn them, but understand that you will have to deal with many name changes along the way.
Ed. note: I’ve included the new genus names where appropriate.
The best thing about all these name changes is that mostly the 2nd part
of their name, the species part, has been kept. So you can usually
find them in the new field guides, by looking under species names in the
index. Of course, this only works if your field guide has both genus
and species listed separately. Such guides as Arora, Bessette, et.al.,
and Philips do.