Four Months of Fungal Forays – 2024
A few spots of rain in the latter two weeks of August held promise for a decent mushroom bloom in the remaining months of 2024. Given the dryness of the prior two years, this offered the possibility of a new dimension for my daily walks and hikes in and around Victoria. Close to normal rainfall in the ensuing four months supported a mushroom bloom to be remembered. VCC members enjoyed the benefits during the always popular mushroom field trips at the Royal Roads property. While my daily walks are mainly for exercise, they also provide an opportunity to tune into nature, something the popular media tell us is good for mind and body! Many decades ago, Freeman Patterson and some others said that photography helps us tune into nature and I have found this to be true in my professional and recreational lives. In those early days, my professors told me that serious photography was a necessary requirement in the earth science research I wanted to do. Thus, having a camera at hand became habitual, helping to direct and record what I saw. Today, such is easy with the advanced camera systems nested in smart phones.
What follows is a very small sampling of some of my encounters in the fungal world during the latter four months of 2024, as captured by iPhone and/or Olympus EM5 II. Why the focus on fungi? Fungi, like plants and animals, are among the great biological kingdoms comprising life on Earth. The inability of fungi to manufacture their own food leads to fascinating relationships with other life forms. Fungi are accessible. I need only walk a few meters from my front door for encounters to start. My encounters in 2024 took place in the urban core around James Bay, downtown, and Beacon Hill. More distant encounters required travel to Royal Roads, Thetis Lake and the Francis-King Park connector. The following images are arranged in the approximate order in which the various species presented through the four months. In some cases, I have chosen species that are on the more unusual side, at least in my experience. Being very much an amateur when it comes to mycology, some identifications may be off. I rely heavily on: Mushrooms of British Columbia, Audubon Field Guide to Mushrooms, Peterson Field Guide to Mushrooms, and All That the Rain Promises and More. If I need encouragement to carry on, I dip into Merlin Sheldrake’s Entangled Life and more recently, Robin Wall Kimmerer’s The Serviceberry.
While the late-August rain held promise, it is important to remember that the fungal world beneath our feet is active throughout the year via its many mycorrhizal relationships with plant/tree roots, etc. The objects of our fascination, mushrooms of various types, are the ephemeral fruiting bodies of a vast fungal network. While the fruiting of many species in this part of the world is related to late-summer through winter moisture, one encounters mushrooms in various forms throughout the year. Most prominent of these is a variety of Turkey Tails, False Turkey Tails, and Conks (self-like fungi) on dead and dying wood of standing and fallen trees and their parts, as well as on rotting fence and railing wood. While many of these examples look dead or inert through the height of summer, a close look may provide a reminder that much more is afoot. An example of such a reminder was an encounter with a sweating Conk prior to the late-August rain (Photo 1).
A VCC Alternate Tuesday shoot took us to Kinsol Tressel on September 3 and some exploring just off the main walking trail revealed the beginnings of an early bloom of forest floor and grassy area species. Among the early risers that were appearing there and in the forested areas at Royal Roads and Thetis Lake were the attractive Gemmed Puffballs (Photo 2).
In the two weeks that followed, other early risers such as Shaggy Parasols, some Amanita, Slippery Jacks (Photo 3) and a few Russula started to show up in city gardens, lawns and other grassy spots in the urban core.
Later in September and into October, a wonderful array of colourful small species appeared in mossy and leafy forest floor areas in Beacon Hill Park, Royal Roads and Thetis/Francis King. Given their size and mossy/leafy surroundings they can be difficult to spot and may go unnoticed. The appetizingly named Small Cinnamon Sugarcap (Photo 4) is a good example as is the beautiful Two-coloured Laccaria (Photo 5).
During mid-October in forest areas, various coral mushrooms began to show. The smallest, Crested Corals, appeared in great numbers in parts of the Royal Roads property. That shown in Photo 6 is an early stage with the crests not fully developed and was growing with others on a small downed, mossy fir trunk. Other examples were seen attached to shallowly buried or partially exposed tree roots. The image is a marginally successful attempt to replicate some of the exquisite mushroom photographs produced by focus stacking, use of supplementary light and background blurring. As most of the images in this collection attest, I tend to include details of the immediate surroundings, as one of my goals in the forays is to become more proficient in identification wherein context is important. A touch of laziness may also be a factor!
Photo 7 shows a Bear’s Head fungus from a location at Royal Roads in late-October. I have seen it at the same location in previous years. It is a white-rot species that populates downed and decaying fir trunks in shaded locations where it tends to annually reoccur until the nutrients are exhausted. The specimen shown here is about 40 by 40cms in size.
The Panther Cap shown in Photo 8 appeared at Beacon Hill summit adjacent to the parking lot in late-November. Closely related to the spectacular red and white Fly Agaric, the Panther Cap most commonly presents with a yellowish colour and is common in grassy areas during autumn on Beacon Hill. The dark chocolate brown version shown here was a surprising find. Throughout its three-week tenure, it retained the colour.
Several White Marasmius, as show in Photo 9, appeared in a small, forested area at Beacon Hill Park in mid-December. They grew in groups on dead cane-like bush stems. These small mushrooms have a non-descript amorphous white appearance when seen from above but the underside reveals a gorgeous set of gills interspersed with netted and connecting veins. The mushroom itself is translucent. Apparently, they may bloom at any time of the year
In nature photography, especially when one’s focus is on small things, surprises may occur when extraneous or ephemeral objects are not noticed during framing the image. These can appear as an unwanted distraction or a delightful surprise in the resultant photograph. The latter was the case when I photographed the undersides of a group of overlapping Flat Crep mushrooms in Beacon Hill Park in December. These small, flat and roundish mushrooms grow without stems on decaying wood. Rather, they are attached to the wood by a cluster of white mycelia threads. During my taking the photograph of the gill structure, a Woodlouse (Armadillidium vulgae) intruded just as I snapped the shot!
Bleeding Mycena were encountered through much of the four-month period in a variety of locations from Royal Roads in mid-September to Beacon Hill Park and along the Dallas Road walking path through December. These beautiful mushrooms grow in groups on moist, decaying wood. Those at Royal Roads were found on downed fir logs while those at Dallas Road appeared on the cedar railings along the paved walking path, usually in the company of healthy foliose and fruticose lichens as shown in Photo 11.
Groupings of Eyelash Cups appeared on a decaying log in a forested area of Beacon Hill Park in mid- to late-December. Their bright orange to red colour and appearance as groups makes them marginally visible as the individuals are very small. The largest individual shown in Photo 12 is less than 1 cm in width.
These beautiful saucer- and cup-shaped mushrooms take the name from the dark hairs protruding from their outer margins and present on their undersides. They are a fitting item with which to conclude this narrative and a limited selection from many mushroom encounters over the latter four months of 2024. Photography provided a lens through which to see and focus on my immediate surroundings in the urban area. The results opened my eyes to a fungal wilderness that is as much a part of our surroundings as plants and animals. To top it off, the carbon footprints were small!