Fungi 2011

[Hans J]

and now I declare the fungi saison 2011 for open  

My wife has found today :
Morchela esculenta ( thats the true Morel )
Disciotis venosa ( similar taste )

  Hans

[Stephenb]

Congratulations to Hans' wife! I'd never heard of Disciotis venosa, but it seems it's a red-listed (endangered species) here called Skivemorkel.

[Hans J]

Thank you Stephen 

Those Disciotis venosa are in my area really common ...it is interesting : they smells raw after Chlor ....after cooking they have a smell and taste like a morel .
Here we call it : Bechermorchel

Hans

[Stephenb]

I found a discussion about the edibility of this species on a Norwegian forum and somebody had found this quote from a German mushroom guide:

Gut abkochen, der Chlorgeruch verliert sich dabei" (Der Grosse Kosmos Pilzführer).
Boil well, the smell of chlorine is then lost "(The Great Cosmos mushroom guide).

Somebody responded that you would have to be desperate to want to eat this one...

Is it commonly eaten there or is your wife an extreme cook?

[Olga Bondareva]

Hans, great! You started mushroom season!

I'd never heard of Disciotis venosa

Me too.

[Hans J]

 

[Roma]

This little fungus appears every year about this time in boggy places in the ponies' field.  It looks like white hair.

[mark smyth]

Roma does it live on horse dung?

[Roma]

I don't think it does, Mark.  It is not the one which appears when piles of droppings go 'mouldy'.  It only appears about this time of year and is quite widespread in wet places.

[Ragged Robin]

This selection of Funghi was collected from the New Forest, not by me but I would love to join one of the Funghi forays there... they are so beautiful.

[Maggi Young]

My word, Robin- what a beautiful photo!

[Ragged Robin]

Thanks Maggi, it seems a shame to cook them! The New forest is quite a collectors paradise but you have to be part of the select few who know where they are!

[arillady]

These caught my eye the other day - under a row of pine trees approaching our local small town.
Any suggestions as to a name as I have no fungi books?

[Afloden]

The fungi in the pony fields is Pilobolus. Its life cycle involves the digestive track of many large herbivores where it germinates upon exiting in the fresh manure.

[Lesley Cox]

I don't think it does, Mark.  It is not the one which appears when piles of droppings go 'mouldy'.  It only appears about this time of year and is quite widespread in wet places.

I get something similar, smaller perhaps, when a cat had pooed in my potting mix pile, or in the garden. I generally heave a shovelful containing poo and fungus, back to my neighbour whose cat it is. or rather into their high Cupressus macrocarpa hedge.