May Mushrooms

It's May, and for mushroomers that means you're either riding high from a successful morel season or, like me, disappointed once again by your failure to find morels (not that I've been at this long, or tried more than a couple of times). A lot of mushroom enthusiasts are just now waiting for the showier mushrooms of summer and fall to appear. I caution you, though: if this is your thing, don't write off May! Quite a lot of good edibles grow around this time, and it's when you really start to see some variety out there. From this point until about November in this region, you can more or less count on finding some mushrooms of at least middling interest if it's at all wet outside.

So, what's to be found in May? Well, I'll start you off with some species I encountered on the stroll that inspired this post.

I initially thought that the mushrooms depicted above and to the right were wine caps (Stropharia rugosoannulata) based upon their superficial appearance, the season, and their growing on mulch. When I returned I discovered I was mistaken: wine caps have a distinctive ring which seemed to be lacking, though I do note what appears to be a ring zone near the top of the stem. Wine caps also have white gills which turn purplish black - never the brown color seen here. On top of all that, these don't really look anything like any images I can find of wine caps, after all. The question of course becomes, "well, what are they then?" The answer, to my chagrin, remains "I don't know."

I began and remain quite confident that these (above photo only) mushrooms are scaly inky caps (Coprinopsus variegata). The coprinoid mushrooms are possessed of gills which deliquesce as they mature. Most are edible, although the alcohol inky, so named because it is known to contain a substance which inhibits your body's ability to metabolize alcohol, can make you sick if combined with a couple of beers. I have seen this particular spot produce these mushrooms in spring for three consecutive years.

These two photos show varying stages of the mica cap (Coprinellus micaceus), another coprinoid mushroom that's pretty common around here. This one is easiest to distinguish by the tiny granules on the cap (you might have to expand the picture at the left to see them clearly). However, these have a habit of washing or blowing away quite early in the mushroom's life, so you may need to rely on characteristics. Honestly, I haven't had much trouble getting a fairly positive ID on the little guys most of the time regardless. If you plan to eat them, though, just be sure you DON'T have alcohol inkys instead.

Of course, we couldn't forget our old friend dryad's saddle, could we? These things might get boring fast, and might wind up with the record for most appearances in this blog.

At left are some pictures of a few unidentified mushrooms from the later part of my little stroll. I didn't bother collecting these for later analysis, or taking detailed notes, but I coudn't resist a few quick photos. The first specimen could be a small fawn mushroom, or a large fairy-ring mushroom, or something completely different, like an agrocybe. That's a convoluted way of saying I can't tell from my photograph, because it only offers a limited view of one specimen. I won't bother with my wanton speculation on the identity of the second.

What I've shown you thus far hardly exhausts the list of mushrooms one might find in May. I myself have encountered mower's mushrooms (Panaeolus foenisecii), fairy ring mushrooms (Marasmius oreades), orange dog stinkhorn (Mutinus elegans), and crown-tipped coral (Clavicorona pyxidata), among others. The stinkhorn is one of the foulest living things on the planet. It gets is name because it looks kind of like a dog's penis. It has a slimy, oily secretion which attracts flies and smells and looks like feces. When cut, it smells like I imagine Oscar the Grouch would smell.

I will close with an anecdote related to the above picture. Those tasty morsels are oyster mushrooms which became part of last night's dinner. I was biking home from work, which is what I'm usually doing at 5:30 or so on a Thursday afternoon, when I noticed some mushrooms hanging from a stump right at the edge of the path. Maybe a hundred yards later, my mind said "waaaaaaaaaaiiiiiit a minute! Those looked like oysters - and in good shape!" I brought my bike around and pulled off to the side. Sure enough, oysters they were. I didn't have any wax paper, so I put them in the messenger bag I carried and crossed my fingers against their destruction. Think that meal was satisfying? It most certainly was.