Blog
Identifying Cottonwood Trees
One of the key habitats for early-season mushroom finding in the Pacific Northwest is with cottonwood trees. Western Washinton has fewer deciduous trees than the east coast, so identification is easier. Our cottonwood species is Populus trichocarpa. To find black...
Snohomish County Mushroom Foray
We're inching into spring mushroom season with low-elevation areas showing the most progress. This Saturday we will scout river bottom areas around Snohomish County in search of verpa and oysters near cottonwoods. I'm sure we will find plenty of other common spring...
Morels are edible and poisonous
It comes as a surprise to many when I say that the edibility of mushrooms is on a spectrum. Poisonous mushrooms can often be eaten when prepared in sometimes quite elaborate ways. For instance, there is a method for preparing the classic Amanita muscaria in a way that...
Spring Foraging – Stinging Nettles
Before most edible spring mushrooms start flushing here in the Pacific Northwest we start to see stinging nettles. In fact, one of my most anticipated signs of spring are the nettles popping up in the green spaces around our home in NW Seattle. The deep emerald color...
Fire Retardant and Burn Morels
Trent recently posted about the safety of eating morels that are foraged in burn zones due to the use of fire retardants in the area. You can find the original post here. Here my key takeaways from the article. There is very limited research on morels and fire...
Toxicity of Morels and False Morels in the Pacific Northwest
Introduction Navigating the spectrum of mushroom edibility and toxicity presents a complex challenge. Even widely accepted edible mushrooms can cause adverse effects in some individuals, while certain mushrooms known for their toxicity, such as Gyromitra esculenta,...
Mushroom Conditions Seattle Jan 23 2024
How are the current conditions for mushrooms in the Seattle area right now? After a recent cold snap, the region has returned to more typical temperature ranges with highs in the 50s and lows above freezing. Some might think that these conditions would be quite...
Deer Mushroom Cultivation – Pluteus
In January 2023 I stumbled upon a log of fresh Deer mushrooms in the Anacortes Community Forest in Northwest Washington. Deer mushrooms are broadly distributed around the world and are fairly common west of the Cascades. January can typically be a strange time to find...
12 Days of Mushrooms
As we pass the winter solstice and look back on a fungi-filled autumn, here’s a fun reimagining of the 12 days of Christmas for all of you mycophiles.
Milk Caps
The Milk Caps can be a fascinating and sometimes overwhelming genus to observe. Scientifically known as Lactarius, the name indicates one of the genus's unique characteristics: a strongly-colored juice known as latex or 'milk'. Dozens of Lactarius species grow in the...
Salish Sea Mushrooms was founded to help grow our region's knowledge and appreciation for mushrooms and the ecosystems they inhabit.
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FROM OUR BLOG
Darrington Mushroom Conditions 6 May
The western slopes of the Cascades offer a variety of habitats for spring mushrooms. Darrington is...