reishi_o

Hey yall, this is a reminder about the FREE foraging workshop/panel discussion today at 530 EST (IN 2.5 HOURS!)

With and
LINK in the bio

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Sometimes we gotta lean into . nothing like Saturday morning as I work on the business plan for

3 years in the making this is a startup mushroom farm business plan. When I moved to from I never expected I'd be here doing this.

Thankfully I have a cup of tea in a mushroom mug made by Grandi.

Disclaimer: I have zero association with Tippecanoe Herbs (other than customer).

Migraines have debilitated me since age 8 or 9. They just absolutely wreck me. Starting at that age, I was prescribed high adult doses of acetaminophen and ibuprofen in efforts to treat these issues.

Since then, I've tried a long list of remedies. This one from kicks ass!

It is seriously amazing. Fast. Effective. 🌱based. I have had to use it 4 times since getting it in Dec. and it is now staying on my person at all times.

Orchids.

One of the largest most diverse plant families. Wild creatures.

Bizarre, specialized mycorrhizal relationships, possibly not all hand-holding commensalism symbiosis.

Check out for a fat downloads on the botany of this epic family of plants and for a rad chat about relationships with orchidaceous mycorrhizal fungi.

The orchid room at the world class Montréal Jardin Botanique. What a show.

Feast your eyes on these fancy fuzzy photos!

J'aime les jardines botaniques. Les j'adore vachement. Ugh.

And who doesn't wanna hang out it a cloudforest fern enclave? Makes me feel all nostalgic for this special special ecotype.

Ex situ conservation and education like this is a lovely practice, and we need to pair it with environmental awareness for these dwindling biodiversity refuges with plant kin who've been around at least since Gondwanaland (some WAY longer).

If you haven't in a while, here's my unsolicited advice: go stick your head in the clouds.

..or oggle some pics of tree fern/cycad forests or Platycerium....you're welcome.

With love,
A cosmic bob

Ok! Back by popular demand (and approaching Winter),

Cosmic Bob's fungus of the day! Or should I say fungi...?!

Another parasitic double down, who I got to meet at the NEMF foray:
Trichoderma avellanum
Is believed to parasitize Marasmius subnudum and once parasitized, smells EXACTLY like coconuts!!
🌴🌰🌴

Etymology corner
Abellana is Latin for "nut"
Corylus avellana = hazelnut

"Trike" (known affectionately by mushroom cultivators) is the bane of home and commercial growers alike. It is an ascomycotan fungi with anamorph and teleomorph forms (think two different appearances for sexual and asexual reproduction!!)

Trichoderma is also used as a preventative biocontrol for peach leaf curl Taphrina deformans and is almost always present in soil.

Marasmius are saprophytic basidiomycetes who decompose wood. Some species are famous for making fairy rings (Marasmius oreades). Do any of y'all know whether they're brown rot or white rot? Primary or secondary decomposers or further down the line?

You can see the spores from this public domain photo. A photo of the believed host from Maryland Biodiversity Project and an in situ shot from québecoise mycologist Renée Lebeuf

Got to spend the weekend at my first NEMF-FQGM foray with and around 150 other KEEN mycologists/fungi enthusiasts ranging from professionals to brand new and everywhere in between.

I'm floored by the kindness and inclusivity of this group. Their passion and gracious sharing/teaching was top tier this weekend.

Over 400 species were collected and identified over two and a half days!!!

I learned A TON. It renewed the purpose of my posts: to engage further with mycology and share what I'm learning to learn more and generate conversation.

Let's learn together!

Hydnum sp. AKA hedgehog
Is a choice 👌👌edible in the Hydnaceae family.

You'll notice the spore bearing surface of this mushroom is toothed instead of having those classic mushroom gills or even pores for you boletivores in the crowd.

This particular population has a super orange cap compared with any other hydnum I have seen, and the color was consistent across the maturity range. I know there are some complexities surrounding this genus, and I am excited to learn more at the NEMF conference in Joliette this weekend!

Grisettes!

Amanita fulva grouping are another photogenic bunch from the Amanitacea. The most famous of which is of course the A.muscaria or Fly Agaric.

Unlike A.muscaria, A.fulva is section Vaginatae per Bas (famed Dutch Amanita expert). Note the lack of an annulus (ring) on the stipe (stem). Note the saccate volva (see Kuo's page on Amanitas for a nice side by side photo depiction of Amanita basal structures). Interesting basal morphology may prove less diagnostic than once thought (see Amanitaceae.org) but let's stick with it for now! Note the clearly striate cap margins and lack of universal veil remnants on the cap.

A.fulva is considered a tasty edible, but remember the one rule recognized by Aurora, "when in doubt, throw it out." Be 100% when eating wild mushrooms you collect, ESPECIALLY with Amanitas, since this family hosts some of the most deadly of mushrooms as well as some of the tastiest.

Even after picking hundreds of pounds of mushrooms a day, this still lights me up.

It's fun learning the Quebecois names for champis.....pour example, hedgehog is not herisson (French for hedgehog) but pied du mouton (sheep's foot) et
chantarelles se appelle ....bien...

You can probably tell by the "w**ds" AKA ground cover ;) that I can be pretty lazy in the garden.

The last two years I've used the spent blocks from as mulch in my gardens.

You could bury these tired mushroom blocks, cover them in wet woodchips, try to use them to inoculate pasteurized sub, or....just set and forget like I do. Marks plants, protects them, builds soil, provides habitat and food for ALL KINDS of critters (millipedes, earthworms, spiders-oh the spiders!, I even saw fox s**t near one) and provides a bit of a w**d barrier. Also holds moisture in the soil. Minimal effort, obtain multiple yields, and still harvest more mushies than I can reasonably eat.

The best part is that the flagship pleurote Marie-Anne is a Québec native, so there is zero concern about introducing new species to the ecosystem.

Fun day out and about dans la forêt le. Ran into some new friends (photo 2, 6 and 7 (Mycena leaiana ) and some old (3= crown tipped coral, 4 = chanterelles!, 5= Leccinum picea, 8 = chocolate tube slime mold) among others....summer oyster, a surprise Hericium fruit (H.coralloides?), dat radical lookin who's-a-whatsit in da middle of photo one dare...what a day!