Bondarzewia berkeleyi
I have never encountered this mushroom before and it is big enough that I would have remembered. After looking around there are quite a few of them. They run in a band around the south and wests slopes at the same altitude. They are scattered throughout the woods, usually clustered together. Their rate of growth is quite rapid. One popped up next to a trail and grew to about 1 foot across within a day.
I have read they are edible and they had pleasant smell so I tried some. It was like chewing leather, it tasted good but you could hardly chew it up. My wife ended up running a couple cups through a food processor and putting it in a chicken casserole with rice. It tasted good and since it was already chopped up went down good. I had it for lunch a couple times the next week and the older it was the more the mushroom taste came out.
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Bondarzewia berkeleyi
Type: MorelCollection date: 08/16/2008
Name: Bondarzewia berkeleyi
Common Name: Berkeley’s Polyphore
Description: This is a big mushroom, we have them two feet across and fast growing. I saw one pop out of the ground and reach over a foot wide in a day.
Edibility: Edible
Color: White to Cream
Size: Over 15cm
Cap type: Convex, Shield Shaped
Gills:
Stem type: Lateral, rudimentary, absent
Flesh: Flesh fibrous
Texture:
Veil:
Ring:
Volva:
Mycelium:
Spore color:
Habitat: Grows in woods
Habitat2: Grows on the ground
Habitat3:
Field Notes
Note: 09/18/2008 These polyphores have been fruiting over a month now. The last is starting to show signs of rot. : 88-53°F : dryNote: 09/22/2008 The last berkeley polyphore is rotting on the ground now. : 55-82°F : Dry
Trametes elegans
I came upon this stump covered with mushrooms the other day and had to figure out what they were. It took me a couple of days investigation but finally decided they were Trametes elegans. I have also seen these mushrooms on downed beech tree trunks mixed in with Oyster Mushrooms.
They are fairly widespread through my woods mostly on downed beech trees.
They are very have a faint pleasant smell when fresh and a tough fibrous body. They have no stem growing shelf like from the wood.
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Trametes elegans
Type: PolyporeCollection date: 08/15/2008
Name: Trametes elegans
Common Name:
Description: White shelf mushroom with very small maze like pores
Edibility: Inedible
Color: White to Cream
Size: Over 15cm
Cap type: Convex, Shield Shaped
Gills:
Stem type: Lateral, rudimentary, absent
Flesh: Flesh fibrous
Texture:
Veil:
Ring:
Volva:
Mycelium:
Spore color:
Habitat: Grows in woods
Habitat2: Grows on wood
Habitat3:
Field Notes
Note: 10/05/2008 New ones still appearing. : 46-76°F : DryOlder posts: 1 2