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 Pacific Northwest and the characteristics of any one species can vary significantly from mushroom…
Candy Cap Mushrooms Candy caps are small, orange-brown mushrooms in the milk cap genus Lactarius that smell of maple syrup when dried. Several similar-looking species exist, and only some have that scent. Lactarius rubidus is the name usually used for the local candy cap. Mushrooms of Cascadia (Siegel & Schwarz) reports it from western Cascadia,…
Fungus vs. Mushroom What’s the Difference? People use “fungus” and “mushroom” interchangeably, but they’re not the same thing. A fungus is the entire organism. A mushroom is just one part of it — the reproductive structure that pops up above ground to release spores. It’s like the difference between an apple tree and an apple….
April 2023 was a month of the false morel known as Verpa. These are among the first of the mushrooms to show up in the spring. They begin fruiting with cottonwoods at low elevations and then move into the foothills as the season progresses. — Learn more about Verpa bohemica here — Apr 1-2 My…
Finding Morels in Washington Where, when, and how to hunt the Pacific Northwest’s most prized spring mushroom Morels are the mushroom that gets Pacific Northwest foragers out of winter hibernation. From landscape woodchips in March to high-elevation burn sites in July, morel season in Washington stretches across four months and multiple distinct habitats. This guide…
Matsutake mushrooms, highly valued for their unique aroma and culinary applications, can be identified by several key features: Together, these characteristics are essential for accurately identifying matsutake mushrooms in the wild. The Pacific matsutake’s current scientific name is Tricholoma murrillianum. Until 2017 it was known as Tricholoma magnivelare, a name that belongs to a separate…
I just finished the first version of a PNW Boletes illustration. It sorts our boletes into general groups by genus, which should help simplify things. Beginners interested in edible boletes should start with Boletus, the king boletes, which are common, tasty, and among the easier boletes to identify. The admirable bolete (Aureoboletus mirabilis) is another…
Toadstool is an informal, folk term for a mushroom, usually one with an umbrella-like cap on a central stem, and often one that is inedible or poisonous. It has no scientific meaning and does not refer to any specific mushroom or group of mushrooms. Since about 1800 the word has been “popularly restricted to poisonous…
Learning to forage and identify mushrooms in the Pacific Northwest takes time. I would like to share some of my favorite sites and apps to help speed up your learning. Even experienced mushroom foragers would likely find a few surprises in here. The best time to pick mushrooms Chanterelles, boletes, morels, and other edible mushrooms…
A group of us met up in the Lake Wenatchee area on Saturday to look for spring kings (Boletus rex-veris). Both morels and spring kings are found predominently in the eastern Cascades. Morels are the first to show up in early May and boletes later in the month and into June or even July at…
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