resembles a Gomphus, or a bunch of whitish stalagmites growing up from the ground. When it gets around 6" tall, it should start to look like its mature form. Can get over 3 feet wide but typically about 2 feet wide at maturity, looking like a rosette. Its taste is mild when immature, becoming bitter when fully grown. B. montana is also known as B. mesenterica.
Flesh: White.
Cap: A caplet is 2½" – 10" wide and ⅛" – 1" thick. B. berkeleyi: creamy in color on the upper surface, sometimes with some off-white, yellowish or brownish. Margin sometimes a lighter color. Often zoned. Caplets become fused together on their interior sides and at the base. Overlapping caps in the cap clusters are fan-shaped. B. Montana: tannish brown to brownish. It typically is a little smaller and can somewhat resemble an Albatrellus.
Berkeley’s Polypore (B. berkeleyi)
Pores: White, becoming cream colored with age and descending down the stalk. Not circular, but somewhat angular and often ridge-like.
Spore Print: White.
Stalk: 2" – 4⅜" tall and 1" – 2½" wide. B. berkeleyi: creamy to yellowish. Often central. B. Montana: brownish. Both species’ stalks are attached to an underground tuber-like mass called a sclerotium.
WHERE, WHEN HOW TO LOOK
Where: On soil, but connected to wood. B. berkeleyi usually grows touching at the bases of hardwood trees, typically oak trees or stumps, but occasionally growing 10 feet or so away from the tree on underground roots. It is more eastern and central in range. B. montana is western and grows in the same manner but on conifers such as pine, spruce and fir.
When: July to November.
How they appear: Usually singly at the base of a tree, but sometimes several can be found at a tree.
How common…how rare? Occasional to common.
LOOK-ALIKES
The edible Black-Staining Polypore (Meripilus sumstinei), which differs by bruising black. The edible Umbrella Polypore (Polyporus umbellatus), which differs by having circular caps and a central stalk on each caplet. The edible Sheep Head (Grifola frondosa), which has smaller caps and does not taste bitter or bruise black. All three of the above are edible. The inedible Dye Polypore or Dyer’s Mushroom (Phaeolus schweinitzii) has flesh that is yellowish to brownish or with rusty tones.
Berkeley’s Polypore (B. berkeleyi)
EDIBILITY
Edible but too bitter to be eaten when mature.
DEADLY GALERINA
(Galerina marginata)
DESCRIPTION
Galerina mushrooms are typically brownish colored, and for the most part are very difficult to identify to species, many requiring a microscope. It is important to learn about this mushroom because it has been responsible for numerous poisonings. Can be mistaken for other mushrooms, including Stump Mushrooms, the Velvet Foot, and Magic Mushrooms. In the recent past this mushroom was called Galerina autumnalis. It is from ½" – 4" tall.
Flesh: Creamy to brownish. Much thinner than the gills and usually less than ¹⁄₁₆" thick.
Cap: ½" – 2½" wide and ⅛" – ⁵⁄₁₆" tall. Brownish to light yellowish brown with hints or spots of orangish. Typically becomes lighter as it ages or dries out, when tan tones then develop at places. Convex, becoming almost flat with age. Outer edge of its margin can be lined.
Gills: ¹⁄₁₆" to ¼" deep, and attached to the stalk. Yellowish brown, becoming spore colored as they mature.
Deadly Galerina on moss-covered wood
Spore Print: Rusty brown.
Stalk: ½" – 3¾" tall and ⅛" – ⅜" wide, and often wider at the base. The partial veil leaves a ring that does not stick out much on the stalk. Stalk gets darker as the mushroom matures. Brownish, but can be whitish at places; also smooth and hollow. Has white colored mycelium that can occasionally be seen when pulled out of loose, rotted wood.
WHERE, WHEN & HOW TO LOOK
Where: On rotten wood such as logs usually missing the bark. On both hardwood and conifers.
When: May to December, more commonly, but some all year. Can even be found frozen in December.
How they appear: In small groups to scattered or in larger amounts.
How common…how rare? Common in the U.S. and in eastern and western Canada.
LOOK-ALIKES
American and European DNA collections of both G. marginata and G. autumnalis have been compared and they are identical, proving they are a single species, now called Galerina marginata. This name was chosen because it was published first.
EDIBILITY
Extremely Poisonous. Can cause death. The lucky ones who survive have extended hospital stays and thousands of dollars in medical bills. Two common stories told by survivors of poisoning by this mushroom: 1) “I thought I could skip the spore printing because it took too long.” If they had taken the time, they would have seen that this mushroom has a rusty brown print and the mushroom that they thought it was had a white spore print; and 2) “I did do the spore print, but I thought the book was wrong.” When you’re dealing with possible fatal poisoning, it’s a good idea to trust the book. And always spore print. It may save your life.
FLY AGARIC
(Amanita amerimuscaria nom. prov.)
DESCRIPTION
This mushroom gets its common name because it has been used to “kill” flies. In the recent past there were three forms: Amanita muscara var. formosa (yellowish orange capped; Amanita muscaria var. muscaria (reddish capped); and var. alba (whitish capped). These color forms from the lower 48 states and Canada have now been combined under one name because of DNA testing. The ameri was added in front of species Muscaria to indicate that ones found in North America differ from ones found in Alaska, Europe and Asia; however, one in the Pacific Northwest appears to be a form of the European ones.
Flesh: White.
Cap:
