A Mushroom Hike at Hazelwood

atop a highest hill
near Hazelwood
11 September 2011

It's been a hot, dry summer here in Thunder Bay, which aren't exactly ideal conditions for fungi to produce their fruiting bodies, but that didn't stop a few mushrooms from appearing for the Mushroom Hike at Hazelwood Lake on the weekend. Hosted by the Lakehead Conservation Authority, and guided by Dr. Leonard Hutchinson from Lakehead University, R and I were among many others in attendance for the first hike of the day.
When I was talking with my mother earlier, making arrangements with her to take Hannah to hockey so that R and I could attend the hike I sent her into a panic with the word "mushroom", which might have been a little over the top, but understandable if you've known someone who has had a severe reaction to eating the wrong mushroom (which she has), or if you've had a severe reaction to eating anything (which I have).
I've never eaten the wrong mushroom though, and I have no intentions to go out picking any to eat anyway - which I reassured her with. I only want to take pictures of them, not eat them. For now I'll leave it to the grocers and farmers to find me my mushrooms. I'm just not that brave or confident with my identification skills (yet).

Dr. Hutchinson had some great suggestions for identification, including having at hand a good guide book. I do have one - the very one he had with him - somewhere around here..., and once I find it I will bring it with me for our next mushroom hike..., after a good rain.

We didn't make it too far down the trail before R and I had to turn back - he had a flight to catch, and I had a hill to climb. While we were there I did manage to find a few fungi to photograph. It was difficult to get too close to Dr. Hutchinson (the group was a little too large in my opinion), and at first I was really enjoying listening to him. He spoke about the different types of mushrooms, how to identify them by spores, and which grow under particular tree species: basically a how to on hunting mushrooms using the forest around you. I'll remember that when we're at the tree farm (one of my favourite mushroom hunting grounds).

What became rather unfortunate early on were people scattering through the forest picking mushrooms and running back to the professor on the path. Rather than leaving the mushrooms where they were growing - making that connection between species and forest, the majority of the group were crowding Dr. Hutchinson on the path making it difficult to both listen and look. Patience ... why is it so difficult?

We waited for the professor by a pair that R found, and had to protect twice (once unsuccessfully) by an eager picker, but had to give up and leave before the Subaru turned into a pumpkin - our time was up, and it was clear the swarm around Dr. H wasn't going to going to allow him to move freely down the trail.

Our time was up, but I was happy with what I got, both in pictures and in the little extra bit of confidence I now have in identifying mushrooms. Dr. Hutchinson made it seem much less daunting, and hopefully I'll be able to label all my photos properly. Though my mushroom hunting will still be motivated by my camera in the forest, at least when I'm filling paper bags at the market I'll have a better idea as to where my mushrooms grew.

Fairy Parasols

In emerald tufts, flowers purple, blue, and white;
Like sapphire, pearl, and rich embroidery,
Buckled below fair knighthood’s bending knee:
Fairies use flowers for their charactery

The Merry Wives of Windsor (5.5.48-51)

"fairy parasol", mycena Wishart Conservation Forest, September 2007

Kingdom: Fungi
Division: Basidiomycota
Class: Basidiomycetes
Order: Agaricales
Family: Tricholomataceae
Genus: Mycena

I don't know how it happens, but for the second time, In the Key of Charles on CBC Radio, which I'm listening to as I compose this, perfectly suits my subject. How does he do that? Today, his theme is "magic", mine: Fairy Parasols. With a playlist including Bewitched/Ella Fitzgerald, The Magic Flute and *SWOON*Un' Aura Amorosa, K 588 No 17*SWOON* (a cappella, Mozart), to A Kind Of Magic/Classic Queen!!!, and Beethoven's Rondo, Opus 51, NO. 1, to Puff The Magic Dragon, and Sorcerer's Apprentice, Symphonic Scherzo / Yan Pascal....it is complimenting my magic fairy carpet ride through mycena mycology this morning very nicely.

I started by reading this: Tiptoeing Through the Toadstools: Mushrooms in Victorian Fairy Paintings by Moselio Schaechter, from Mushroom: A Journal of Wild Mushrooming, a neat little article on a similar theme. I could easily get sidetracked searching through literature and mythology references, but I think trying to explain the origin of the nick name "fairy parasol" isn't necessary. It's easy to imagine the little waifs of fungi getting scooped up and carried off by a forest fairy. Also referred to as pixies parasols - and I think fairy's or pixie's "bonnets" as well in some instances; either way, they're used by forest sprites and interest me greatly. I love when science and folklore collide.

Supreme Court Judge Barron Field penned one of the earliest works of poetry published in New South Wales. The First Fruits of Australian Verse (George Howe in 1819, pub.), many being reflections on the colony's distinctive flora and fauna, included 'Botany Bay Flowers', wherein he refers to the parasol mushrooms being used by fairies distinctively, though also questioning their need by asking "If Fairies walk by day at all". (Of course we all know they walk by day, just like Smurfs. I've never never met one, or know anyone who's met one......yet.)

The innumerable mycena species make it impossible for me to positively identify my little parasols, pictured above, found in September 2007 in Wishart. Their thread-like stems were about as tall as a Q-Tips popping out of the forest floor, with little pleated-striate caps delicately balanced atop. Such waifs - I could hardly believe they could stand upright.

TheMushroomExpert.com is a fantastic resource. ;)


* Popular Studies in Mythology Romance and Folklore: The Fairy Mythology of Shakespeare
by Alfred Nutt (May 2006)
978-1425497699

The Fairies in Tradition and Literature Katharine Briggs
Routledge; 2 edition (July 30, 2002)
978-0415286015

The Dictionary of Imaginary Places: The Newly Updated and Expanded Classic
Harcourt; Exp Upd edition (November 2, 2000)
978-0156008723