The Journal of Wild Mushrooming Spring-Summer 2018 Issue 118, Vol.33, No.1-2 $7.95 in U.S., $8.95 in Canada Postmaster: Mailed as Periodical Small spalted bowl showcasing every type of spalting. Turned and spalted by Seri Robinson (test tubes) Full range of colors available from the four pri- mary spalting fungi: Scytalidium cuboideum, Scytalidium gano- dermophthorum, Chlorociboria aeruginascens, Chlorociboria aeruginosa (Wood in the lower left corner) Green zone line from the Ama- zon rainforest of Peru. Many zone lines appear black but are actually just highly concentrated colors. (spalted wood just below) Red zone lines found in the Amazon rainforest of Peru (spalted wood bottom right cor- ner) Red-purple pigment found in the Amazon rainforest of Peru See the full article on p. 15! 2 2 Spring-SummerWinter-Spring 2011, 2018, Mushroom Mushroom the the Journal Journal ISSN 0740-8161 Issue 118 Vol. 33, No. 1-2 Spring-Summer 2018 The Journal of Wild Mushrooming Cover Photo: Amanita jacksonii photographed by Walt Sturgeon. For more of Walt’s photos, see the photo-essay on pp. 56-7. Coordinating Editors: Features Leon Shernoff ([email protected]) 13 A Term Defined, by Anne Yen Editor emeritus: 15 The Old Art and New Science of Spalted Wood, by Seri Robinson Don H.Coombs 22 Getting Started at Knowing Mushrooms, by Lee Schuler 33 A Life Full of Mushrooming, by Chuck Barrows Book Review Editor: Ron Tracy 58 Mushrooms and Microhabitats, by Jack Waytz ([email protected]) 66 Amanita muscaria – The Organometallic Dimension, by Beowulf Glutzenbaum Editorial Advisory Board: 68 An Unusual Poison Control Call, by Bill Bakaitis Scott Redhead Agriculture Canada, Ottawa Departments David Arora 4 Easy Edibles: The Newish Morels, by Bob Sommer and Leon Shernoff Santa Cruz, California 9 Word Puzzle: Morel Names, by Donald and Leon Shernoff 10 Obituary: Maggie Rogers, by Betty Gering Paul Stamets Olympia, Washington 24 The Cooking Column: The Joy of Black Trumpets 26 Book Reviews: The Forest Unseen and The Songs of Trees, reviewed by James M. Trappe Ron Tracy Oregon State University 31 Video Review: The Magic of Mushrooms, reviewed by Sarah Prentice 36 Crossword Puzzle: Old and Bold, by Kevin Wald Roy Watling Edinburgh, Scotland 38 Myco-interview: From Long Island to North Carolina: an interview with Rytas Vilgalys Ed Tylutki 46 Fungi around the World: Collecting fungi in the Amazonian Cerro de Moscow, Idaho la Neblina, Venezuela, by Amy Rossman and Roy Halling 54 Photo-essay: Mushroom Colors, by Walt Sturgeon Lorelei Norvell Portland, Oregon Contributing Editors: Bill Bakaitis Moselio Schaechter Larry Evans Dick Grimm Steve Trudell Tjakko Stijve Mushroom, the Journal of Wild Mushrooming, (ISSN 0740-8161) is published quarterly by Mushroom the Journal of Wild Mushrooming, NFP, 1006 E 62nd St, Periodical postage paid at Chicago, IL and additional mailing offices. Unit C, Chicago, IL 60637. POSTMASTER: send address changes to Mushroom the Journal, 1006 E 62nd St, Unit C, Chicago IL 60637 Subscriptions are $32 for one year, $90 for three years, $250 for ten years, and $700 for a lifetime subscription. Copyright 2018 by Mushroom the Journal of Wild Mushrooming, NFP. All rights reserved. No part of this Checks should be sent to Mushroom the Journal, 1006 publication may be reprinted or otherwise reproduced without written permission. Advertising rates are available E 62nd St, Unit C, Chicago, IL 60637. upon request. Back issues are $8.95 each postpaid, four or more at $7.95 each. The journal welcomes contributions of photos or articles, and will be glad to consider them for possible publication. An information sheet is available for Checks drawn on Canadian banks should be marked potential contributors. “US dollars.” Subscriptions outside of North America, please add $25 per year additional postage. Spring-Summer 2018, Mushroom the Journal 3 The Newish Morels by Bob Sommer and Leon Shernoff1 The morel is one of the best who tries to bring species together. Half-frees tasting and most sought after North The DNA testing provides support These are true morels – with a American mushroom. The only risky for splitters not just in species but also honeycombed head – that have a head look-alikes are Gyromitra species in color categories. Back in 2004, that projects a bit (like a skirt) where which are sometimes called false one grouped morels into “yellows” they meet the stalk (see the diagram morels. They appear about the same and “blacks,” with half-frees thrown on this page). They are easy to name, time in spring as morels but are in on their own as trouble-makers. as only one species is recognized for neither conical nor pitted. Morels With more refined distinctions each half of the country. dry easily and I don’t wash them. I being made now, mycology is now Morchella punctipes is the half-free tap them on a hard surface to knock officially recognizing some new morel that occurs widely east of away any dirt particles. forms, including some new colors the Rockies. Morchella populophila is Morels are edible and choice but and color transitions. a Northwestern species that occurs should be cooked before eaten and under black cottonwoods. M. semilibera the water discarded. Scattered or is the name in most of your books; clustered in the wodds, or on bark, but this is one of those European woodchips, fruiting from late winter species that turns out not to occur to early summer. Some people can’t in North America. eat them, which leaves more for the rest of us. Color categories and habitats My last morel column in this One can take the traditional color journal was in 2004. Since then, names as representing the color several new morel species have been of the ridges on the honeycombed identified, mostly on the west coast head more than the color of the of North America. I’m not sure how head overall. The ridge edges of many of these names will be in field black morels will often look singed, guides in 20 years but I’ll describe because they are so much darker than their characteristics. the rest of the cap; and yellow morels I’d rather hunt a tasty morel that can be quite brown in the honeycomb may have a duplicate name than seek pits, but will have lighter ridges. a dull Agaricus or Lepiota. But in this There are also three main habitats article I will be a splitter (to use an for morels. Some morels come out older taxonomy) rather than a lumper the year after forest fires, and these 1 Bob is handling the west coast species and most of the general text here; Leon handles the eastern species and the text for the color-categories. Basically this is one of Bob’s regular Easy Edibles columns with some extra ID information from Leon. The pronouns “I” and “my” all refer to Bob. 4 Spring-Summer 2018, Mushroom the Journal like honeycomb cells and more like but the pits can remain dark for twisty passageways. These can get quite a while. It occurs in states and pretty big. These are the ones that provinces along the border between have traditionally gone under the the US and Canada, from Quebec to lumper name of Morchella esculenta. Montana. The other group has gone under See also M. rufobrunnea, under the the name of deliciosa. They’re about strange ones (below). half the size of the first group, and they usually have some pretty straight vertical ridges, so the spaces between them look more like honeycomb cells. The big (esculenta-type) yellow morels Morchella americana, M. Yellow esculenta-type morels (prob- ably Morchella americana) showing ulmaria the long, winding walls on the head, Cap 20-110 mm tall, 15-40 mm making for labyrinthine crannies. wide. This is the most common yellow in North America, and is are known as burn morels. Other widely distributed throughout the morels come out under pretty much continent. It can be quite dark when the same circumstances as other young, but becomes gray or yellow mushrooms – when their habitat is at maturity. happy, the season is right, and they get enough rain. These are called They start out life a pale grey and “naturals.” The third group comes remain that color if they don’t get out in “disturbed ground” – places much sunlight, leading some local folks to theorize that “grays” and where humans or nature have done Deliciosa-type morels, showing the excavation or other disturbances “yellows” are a different species. more rounded cap and the cap cells and rearrangements of the soil. In And as far as eating goes, they that are not long and winding but homage to the human role in many might as well be, as they develop a also not vertically stacked. of these disturbances, these are called very different flavor when they turn Illustration from Émile Boudier’s yellow. Icones mycologicæ, ou Iconographie “landscape morels.” des champignons de France, Volume There is no intrinsic relationship M. ulmaria often appears identical 2 (1910) between a morel’s color and its to americana, and cannot be reliably lifestyle: all burn morels are black told apart from it without sampling Little (deliciosa-type) morels; we have both yellow and the DNA (leading to the synonym yellow morels black “naturals”; and we have one M. cryptica). It grows in Midwestern Morchella diminutiva & yellow and one black landscape hardwood forests, especially under morel. white ash, american elm, and tulip sceptriformis trees. M. diminutiva has a cap 15-50 mm Yellows Morchella prava tall, 10-30 mm wide, and sceptriformis Yellow morels have a pale head, has a slightly larger size range.