![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Not entirely barren...
Jun. 26th, 2009 08:50 amYesterday's jaunt into the wild here in the high country, to look around and see if the rain has had any effect on mushroom fruiting was cut short by yet some more rain. I did, however, get a chance to visit one known mushroom site of mine, and as I waded through the knee-high vegetation, my heart skipped a beat when I saw a cluster of freshly sprouted mushrooms. I didn't have a camera, so I collected a specimen to study at home.
This mushroom has a convex, smooth cap about 5 inches in diameter, with straight margins that exhibit striations. The gills are free and crowded. The stalk is equal, with a smooth lower half, exhibiting what appear to be yellowish scales toward the cap. There is a universal veil (volva) at the bottom of the stalk, and a yellow partial veil under the cap. The spore print of this mushroom is white.
Unfortunately, the only book I have at hand right now is Evenson's Mushrooms of Colorado, which isn't very helpful (at least, not after spending about 15 minutes with it). From what I can remember of my other reading, I'm thinking this is a member of the Amanita family.
I observed no other mushrooms before having to call it an afternoon.
Drew called to say he saw some mushrooms - one of which he described as a "puffball with a stalk" - while driving his UPS route. I don't know if he collected a specimen, as our cell connection was pretty bad. I'll find out later, I guess.
Cheers...
P.S. Just for fun, I scanned the underside of the cap at 600 dpi. The resulting file was over 200 MB in size, but after cropping and converting to an 85% JPEG, the file has become much more manageable (under 2 MB), and can be found here.
This mushroom has a convex, smooth cap about 5 inches in diameter, with straight margins that exhibit striations. The gills are free and crowded. The stalk is equal, with a smooth lower half, exhibiting what appear to be yellowish scales toward the cap. There is a universal veil (volva) at the bottom of the stalk, and a yellow partial veil under the cap. The spore print of this mushroom is white.
Unfortunately, the only book I have at hand right now is Evenson's Mushrooms of Colorado, which isn't very helpful (at least, not after spending about 15 minutes with it). From what I can remember of my other reading, I'm thinking this is a member of the Amanita family.
I observed no other mushrooms before having to call it an afternoon.
Drew called to say he saw some mushrooms - one of which he described as a "puffball with a stalk" - while driving his UPS route. I don't know if he collected a specimen, as our cell connection was pretty bad. I'll find out later, I guess.
Cheers...
P.S. Just for fun, I scanned the underside of the cap at 600 dpi. The resulting file was over 200 MB in size, but after cropping and converting to an 85% JPEG, the file has become much more manageable (under 2 MB), and can be found here.
