Foray Log 730.2021 - Oregon Coastal Range
Scutellinia group
Foray Log- Oregon Coast Foray, July 30, 2021
One of the only places to see fungi in the PNW during a drought and wildfire season is at the coast on the west side of the Coastal Range where the fog rolls in and keeps everything damp. We decided to make a day of it and visit 4 different places to observe the early summer fungi. First we stopped at South Beach, then met up with the study group at Cape Perpetua, stopped in to the Mike Miller Educational Trail and finally before heading home, walked through Fogarty Creek State Park. It was one long trail of stops up 101 starting in the south and heading north.
South beach was a lovely place recommenced to me by a friend who drew me a 3 page map on graph paper then later pinned a spot in a text message. When we arrived there was no one in the parking lot and and we were eager to walk the trails after a 2.5 hour drive. It was a balmy 100 degrees at home, but when we stepped out of the car we felt that sea breeze at a chilling 60 degrees and immediately went for our jackets. Andrew just had shoulder surgery so getting out of a sling and into a hoodie was more than he wanted to do, so he just hiked in a t-shirt (then complained about it the whole time).
We walked into the Shore Pine forest and began searching for some summer fungi. We did not find much and ended up trail blazing through chest high Salal and even taller Huckleberry bushes. Finally we came to a clearing and there on the ground was a trail of bubble caps poking out of the duff. When we picked them they revealed their bright yellow stipes and decurrent gills, I knew immediately we had struck gold… ‘er… I mean RAINBOWS! Cantharellus roseocanus or the Rainbow Chanterelle, was just starting to fruit. I gathered a small handful, took photos and tracked on to see what else I could find.
I was observing a newly formed Picipes badius when I looked over and found the jeweled green and white pods sitting on a mossy stump. They were so angular and faceted, and there was a scattering of them like they had been placed there. So I grabbed a stick and poked it then picked one up and crushed it. I was not sure if it was fungal or plant, but kept it in the back of my mind as I walked toward a swampy area. In the midst of some waist high skunk cabbage I was looking for fungi when I saw a flash of red. As I moved the large leaves away I found a specimen that was on my bucket list since I learned about them! This pair of Scutellinia scutelata was fruiting in it’s perfect orangish red cup with adorable long (2mm) black eyelashes from the base of this broad leaf skunk cabbage. When I knelt down, I realized it was growing on a twig that was buried at the base of the plant. I was so excited I called Andrew over and showed him my tiny find. After photographing it and placing it carefully in my specimen field box, I glanced around to see what else I could find. That’s when I saw the green and white jewels that I had seen earlier on the stump. It was seed pods from the Skunk cabbage flowers. Some critter had started tearing it up like corn on the cob. Now I knew for sure this was a plant.
We arrived just on time to meet up with the rest of the group at Cape Perpetua. We gathered everyone, made sure parking passes were placed in our vehicles, I showed off my bucket list find of the morning and then we all headed out together on the trail. We immediately encountered some pinning Amanita and then found the low contrasting velvety Trametes hirsuta. We discussed all of what we could recall about the differences between T. versicolor and T. hirsuta. One trick Henry taught us was that on T. hirsuta, if you cut the mushroom you should be able to see a paper thin black line just below the pileus and above the flesh. We checked off all of the key markers for the T. hirsuta as we discussed and debated what this zoned shelf polypore was.
Just after the Trametes debate, Henry spotted the motherlode of ascomycete fungi on this Alder log. We all looked over this and found another flush of reddish orange cups with little black hairs around the margin. We found Scutellinia scutelina again! Or so we thought. After getting both of these specimens home I discovered that they are actually two different species. The spores of the Scutellinia we found here were ridged and much larger than what I found at the other place. So for now I will call it a Scutellinia group until I can get it sequenced.
Further up the trail we stumbled upon the most perfect Parahyrellus porphyrosporus pair. This species often gets taken over by Hypomyces and I have only found it once before in that sage. This was the first time I found it looking so perfect. I photographed it and then Marjorie Young gave us a lesson on odors and how to describe the bolete. There was an earthy sweetness to it and if you inhaled the scent you could smell the sweet almond essence just below the earthy smell. Some of us couldn’t smell it, but I could definitely detect it.
We gathered a few more specimens, photographed the emerging patch of Monotropa uniflora and then headed back to the trail head to have lunch and discuss our finds. With books and coats we braved the breezy lunch hour and ate while we looked up scientific names and descriptions of the fungi we encountered that day. It was uncomfortably cold but we were determined to stay and enjoy it because back at home was sure to be hot and dry.
Scutellinia group
Andrew and I left the group and drove up to the Mike Miller Educational Trail. We parked on the side of the road and hiked up to a little hill where I had found Cantharellus roseocanus last summer. I was just about to claim victory when I pulled up a pair of mushrooms that immidiatly stained bright yellow when I touched them. I flipped them over and found a cortina on the younger specimen and flesh colored gills on the older one. These were about the same size as the Cantharellus roseocanus, but obviously very different. I found a white part on the stipe and scratched it with my nail. It immediately turned bright yellow. I knew this might be special so I collected and photographed it and placed the specimens in my fungi field box. Two steps away was the stunning golden brown Florette growing in the path next to a stump of an old growth Sitka Spruce. The florets were somewhat fragile and a bright white pore surface when I flipped them over. I soon discovered it was Bondarzewia occidentalis after first thinking it was a young Phaeolus schweinitzii.
Along the trail there was a cluster of 4 brown brittle cone looking things. But when I inspected them, there were little faceted crystal like structure bursting out of a blackened papery seed pod. I am pretty sure this is a ground cone or Kopsiopsis hookeri or a mycoheterotroph that I have not seen yet!
Andrew and I decided to stop and one more place on the way home. Fogarty Creek was my choice because I wanted to check on my favorite summertime mushroom, Tapinella atrotomentosa. If found the spot where I had observed them last year, had been completely demolished by some heavy machinery, so I only found one little velvety brown pin in the old spot. As I walked to that spot I found a slug had munched it’s way through a mushroom cap and was sitting inside of it like a gilled hula skirt while eating the stipe. It must have felt me coming because it recoiled into the mushroom cap. While I set up my camera to capture the snack time, the slug slowly pulled itself out and began munching on the gills. That was such a wondrous thing to observe and capture!
I wandered the woods and found all of the usual suspects that I found there last year. I found 3 different kinds of green capped Russula, a nice fruiting of Hydnellum peckii and Hydnellum suaveolens, and even found some Amanita vaginatae. The Hemetomes congestum were not as brilliant this time and had begun fading to a brownish pink. But fruiting right next to a patch of H. congestum was a small Hydnellum peckii! Just over the hill there was a large patch of Hydnellum suaveolens fruiting right next to Hemotomes congestum as well.
Art of the day
“Mycoheterotrophic Facet” -Digital Photograph by Autumn Anglin
