Local colors

Okay, I know this might seem like an unusual photo for the NHBH, but I couldn’t resist…and there’s a natural history connection!  We worked in Mendocino County today, conducting intertidal surveys during the early morning low tide.  But in the afternoon we made a few stops in Fort Bragg and Mendocino, including the Mendocino Art Center.  There’s a fun exhibit about kelp there, and a bonus was this amazing exhibit about dyes made from local mushrooms.  

I’m new to this world, but the dyed-wool examples above were made with different species of mushrooms.  The exhibit is about the collaboration between Dorothy Beebee (illustrator) and Miriam C. Rice (dye pioneer).  It showcases fabrics made with local dyes (including mushrooms collected from Mendocino County) and others on loan from the International Mushroom Dye Institute.  

I haven’t been able to check it out yet, but a documentary film called Try It and See: The Story Behind Mushroom Dyes will be available at www.mushroomsforcolor.com and www.myramadecolor.com.

Such a beautiful earth-toned color palette!

Mellow

  

Mushroom in Chatham, MA, on 29 September 2022

Outward

  

We've been busy with low tide work lately, but here's a fun photo from late March, thanks to a mushroom!

Lovely lilac

 

Blewit (Clitocybe nuda) mushroom, photographed below a Monterey Cypress on Bodega Head on 3 April 2019.

I loved the lilac color of the cap!

Many thanks to Peter for helping me with the identification.

 

Emerging among the pine needles

When Peter mentions that he has found something interesting, you know you're in for a treat.  Such was the case last week when he brought me to a site near Bodega Head and pointed to these:

 

 

 

 

These beauties are all stages (from youngest to oldest) of the Fly Agaric or Fly Amanita (Amanita muscaria).

Note the progression from the "button" stage to globose and then to broad and plate-like. Apparently some can reach up to 40 cm (~15 inches) across!

The small, flattened patches on the cap are remnants of the universal veil — a layer of tissue that initially covers the emerging mushroom.

While scanning different mushrooms among the pine needles, we noticed that a few had been nibbled:

 

 

After a little more searching, we discovered the likely culprit.  Can you find it in the image below?

 

Yes!  A banana slug (Ariolimax sp.) can be seen near the base of the mushroom (see close-up below).

 

(Athough slugs eat them, beware that Fly Agarics are poisonous to people.)

Peter recalled that occasionally these distinctive red-and-white mushrooms show up on winter holiday cards.  This U.S. Forest Service ethnobotany page discusses this association and presents a few images of vintage cards with examples.  I especially like the one with children collecting mushrooms in the snow — a good idea for a knitted hat! 

Mystery photos

When I was younger, we used to get Ranger Rick magazine.  One of my favorite parts of the magazine was the back page. It contained a grid of mystery photos.  Each small square had an extreme close-up of an organism and you could try to guess which organism it came from.

Here's one for you to try!  (The answer is below the photo.)

 

If you guessed the underside of a fungus or mushroom, you're right!  The following are all different views of the same fungus on a eucalyptus tree photographed today.  I'm asking a friend for help with the identification, so will report back with more information soon.

 

 

 

 

ADDENDUM (28 August 2012): Peter and Brendan have both suggested that this is Laetiporus sulphureus (Sulphur Shelf or Chicken-of-the-Woods).  Thanks for the identification assistance!