Another no-mushroom day...

As there were no pressing assignments this morning (a situation that has rectified itself since), I drove out to Williams Lake to see if the rains I've seen fall from afar have had any impact on the mushroom season. Despite the intermittent influx of barely perceptible smoke from the California fires, it was a marvelous day to be out and about.



Based on most of what I observed, the mushroom situation hasn't changed much. As during previous forays, the environment seems perfect - especially the moisture level of the soil - but there simply aren't any mushrooms coming up in places where I know there have been mushrooms in previous years.

On the other hand, I did spy some minuscule specimens here and there:


Both of these items could probably be covered by a twenty-five cent piece. The specimen on the left would appear to be some kind of jelly fungus; the item on the right corresponds to a description I found of Lycogala epidendrum, which is classified as a slime mold.

So the question that arises in my mind is this: Do these little fellows precede or follow what should be a main mushroom eruption?

Cheers...

P.S. Cross-posted to mycology.

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A comment in mycology from autovatic:

I hope you don't find this too disheartening - but I have found witches' butter and wolf's milk during both good and bad mushroom years. I'm not sure that either are any sort of predictor. Also, they grow nearly year 'round, though I think I find more in the fall, simply due to the moisture levels. :/

Good luck with future hunts!

Aha! A little research shows the photo on the left is almost certainly witches' butter (Tremella mesenterica). The related Wikipedia article says this is an edible species, but (a) so says Wikipedia, and (b) you'd have a job collecting enough of this fungus to eat.