A few pics from this week.
Lots of mushrooms out right now but they are drying up in the heat if you aren't lucky enough to catch an afternoon thunderstorm. Here is a nice 3 pound chicken I found this week.

Here is a close up. This was a the white-pored variety.

This was the starting edge of a good patch of smooth chants. I picked about 150 from this patch alone. Some were over 6 inches across.

Here is an easily recognizable bolete, the Old Man of the Woods. This old one was hiding under an earthen shelf along a runoff creek. This is edible, though many stay away from this old hermit.

Here is a shot of some common yellow chanterelles. These were few and far between and often showed signs of drying out.

Here is a small coral mushroom starting out. Although there are some poisonous species none are known to grow in Missouri and many people enjoy eating these easily identifiable fungi.

Here is a cool earthstar. I do not see these much because you really have to be looking to see them I was lucky to stumble across this one while picking chanterelles.

Unknown Bolete (possibly Boletus Auripes)

I found this bolete that I have never seen before. It had a dark brownish red top and a buff/off white pores and stem with slight reticulation. If anyone knows what it is please let me know.
Here are some pictures.

A shot of the stem and pores.

Top (sorry it's slightly out of focus)

A Carpet of Orange

Went out to a completely new area today and picked over 15 pounds in about an hour and there were loads more out there. These were all smooth chanterelles and were found in mixed hardwoods (mainly hickory and oaks) around a small lake.

Here is a nice close up showing a top and a glimpse of the slight ridges on the underside of these smooth chants.

They were everywhere even growing right on the trail in glorious patches. I couldn't believe my luck. If anyone wants to find some, contact me at ahistory (at) centurytel (dot) net. I will tell you where to go in Boone County to find some. I could go back there for a week and not be able to pick them all. Conditions I guess were perfect.

Chanterelle Season is here

July officially begins the start of what looks to be a promising chanterelle season. I went out to check some patches last week and picked about a pound and a half in ten minutes. Hopefully all the rain we have had will help the smaller ones I left behind get bigger (though I haven't had as much luck with chants growing as I have with morels).

Here is another picture of some smooth chanterelles picked last week.
I have yet to find any common yellow chanterelles or cinnabars but I bet they are up now due to the weekend deluge.

My computer has been acting up so I have not been able to post for a while. I will try to post more often now that my computer is back up and running (for now).

An elusive one for me up until this year was the black chanterelle or "black trumpet" mushroom (Craterellus cornucopiodes). I found these for the first time early in June. The bigger ones had dried out already and the fresh ones were very small due to the lack of rain back then. I will have to go back and check them again, and now I know where to look. The ones I found were in a draw in between fields near the tops of a slopes. There was little ground cover and leaves but lots of moss. Trees were mainly oak and other mixed hardwoods (hickory, ash, etc).

Here is the first one I spotted. They are very easy to miss and usually the ones in full moss stand out best.



Here is a close up of a small tiny cluster that might have had a chance if it had rained in the five days prior. You can see some larger dried up clusters in the upper right (out of focus).

I hope to find some common yellow chanterelles after all this rain so hopefully I will get some good pics of those for the blog.