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August 13, 1961 - Mushrooms(vi W ll1 MUSHROOMS — (1 to r) Boletus, Coprinus, and Amanita Exelusice Sunday Review Sketch by Micki Donohue, formerly of Bellport. ocus on ature by Paul Stoutenburgh, Cutchogue MUSHROOMS By Arthur Cooley One of the joys of wandering through a woods or a swamp in the spring and summer is to see the continual charge t h a t takes placE in the Cora. When you enter the woods in the early spring, even before the snow is gone, skunk cabbaga is melting its way through the fro- zen ground. Later, wood anemore and starflower send forth their delicate white flowers. The pink mocassin flower shows its singu- lar beauty. The low -bush blue- berry displays its small b e l I shaped flower which slowly ma- tures and gradually grows into blueberries that whet the appetite of the best gourmet. Amid this continual change, which most can sense, there is another transformation that oc- curs, unseen, below the ground. L o n g white threads begin to weave their way through t h e rotting wood. These mycelium, having waited for the warmth and moisture of spring, are gath- ering strength and biding, their time for the proper conditions to occur. Suddenly a warm rain descends; the proper conditions have br'en fulfilled. Overnight the mycelium feverishly send upward the growth which produces spores to reseed the species. Overnight the a l e r t observer will note -t h e change, will ,see the addition to the landscape. For in the morning, standing where before there was nothing there now is a large yellow capped mushroom. Of all t h e changes in the flora of the woods, none is so spectacular, none so abrupt as the growth of t h e mushroom. The existence of the I a r g e yellow capped mushroom an d ind ny of its close relatives in the nus Amanita has caused many avoid eating wild mushrooms. rge numbers of people, par- ularly those of southern Eur- ean descent, find collecting shrooms for food an enjoyable stime. When properly prepared y add a delicate taste to a ak or soup. The problem, of course, is which ties are edible. Traditionally in erature those that were poison- s were called toadstools; those at were edible were c a I i e d ushrooms. We prefer to call all ngi, which have a cap, a steam gills under the cap, mush- wThere are additional f u n g i hich are edible. Among these are the morels. All of this group are non - poisonous. They grow to about four to six inches in height and have a spongy, corky ap- pearance on the top half. So tasty are these that an infantry captain I once knew spent all his spare time when on maneuvers looking for this particular plant. Pufffballs are known to every boy as the brownish object that will produce a nice c I o It d of "smoke" when kicked or thrown. Most of these are edible w h e n young and the flesh 'is white ad firm. The .boletus are cap fungi but lack the gills under the cap. In- stead they have tiny pore or open- ings where the spore m a y be found. Many of these are edible and some of their numbers Tank among the best eating mushrooms in the fungi world. The shelf fungi, which can be seen on many dead trees pro- truding horizontally from t h e trunk, are generally too woody to be eaten. Finally the great numbers of edible fungi come from the group called mushrooms. Considering the vast numbers of kinds of mushrooms there is a relatively small per cent that are poisonous. The common, mushroom, Agar icus campestris, is the one bought in the store and is often seen growing on lawns. The g e n i u s, Coprinus, is commonly c a l l e d the inky cap mushrooms because as the mushroom matures t he cap turns into a black inky fluid which runs down the stem and stains the ground. Once on a field trip, I collected some Coprinus and gave one to each of a group of students. Wh,le explaining that all the mush- rooms in the genus, Coprinus, were edible, I looked up to see the last of one disappearing down the throat of one of the students I had never tested this mush- room and all of my knowledge had been gleaned from books so I was herefore very apprehen- sive. She, however, found it quite delicious. I now know that they are edible as that student sub- sequently did today's illustrat;on. There have been many tricks passed along which supposedly would identify poisonous in u s h- rooms. One consisted of putting a silver spoon .in a pot of boiling mushrooms. If the spoon tarnished the mushrooms were poisonous. Needless to say this does n o t work. There is no absolute rule that can be used to distinguish good from bad fungi. However, a fam- ous French mycologist takes in- creasingly larger doses of a par- ticular mushroom on successive days to determine if it is edible. It apparently works as he is still alive. There is, however, a rule which will identify most of the most deadly mushrooms. These fungi are in the genera, Amanita and Amonitopsis. The specimen must be dug with extreme care. If it has either a cup around the bul- bous base or a cup and a ring around the stem then it belongs to these genera. From this short discussion it is apparent that one must know each species of mushroom very well before he ventures to place it on his table. This is not an easy taste for the novice. Besides adding food to the ta- ble, mushrooms occupy a very important niche in the workings of . the woods. They provide food for dozens of animals particularly insects, maggots, and s I !r g s. These animals burrow into the stem and cap of the mushroom. Consequently it is advisable when collecting mushrooms to secure only those which are young and firm. I once saw a box turtle eating a red mushroom. It appeared as though nature had provided the perfect food for the turtle as the cap was exactly at the right height for teh turtle's mouth. Fungi do not have chorophyll, the green coloring matter in plants, and so must get t h e i r food from some dead or dying plant. This is why fungi are its - ually seen growing on stumps, dead trees and decaying p l a n t material. In this way the mush- room reuses that which has died and acts as a sort of plant sca- venger in the woods. The next time you walk in the woods, look for the colorful and many times obscu.. a mushroom that does so much to add to the beauty and color of the woodland floor. Discovering a new mush- room is like meeting a n e w friend. One somehow becomes richer in the knowledge that he has seen something new. As one learns more and more of t h e fungi world, the beauty of its form and the taste of its flavor, a walk in the woods takes on an added meaning. FIELD OBSERVATIONS — Dennis Puleston August 5 — Bairds sandpiper, Moriches August 5 — 2 Wdlets, Moriches August 5 — 3 Oystercatchers, Moriches August 8 — Kittiwake G u 11, Brookhaven August 9 — 2 Upland Plovers, Brookhaven August 7 — 2 Northern Water Thrush, Brookhaven August 13 — 6 Wilson's Phalarope August 13 — 1 Marbled Godwit August 13 — 8 Hudsonian Godwit August 13 — 1 Little Blue Heron Please send Field Comments and Observations to Paul St 0, Rt No 1, Box 105, Bay Avenue, Cutchogue, New York.