Mycophilia...

I am a Mycophile. Not to worry - it's nothing dirty or obscene - it simply means I am intrigued by mushrooms. In actuality, even though I don't have any in-depth knowledge about mushrooms, I am a bit of a mushroom geek. When I see a mushroom I immediately want to know what type it is and whether or not I can eat it!

I have a book about edible wild mushrooms...

 ...which has been a great aid for introducing me to other fungal culinary delights besides morels. I haven't been brave enough to try too many others (which also makes me a bit of a mycophobe) but I'm eager to try provided the chances of dying from eating the little bugger is "nil". If you are interested, you might enjoy this book, too. What I like about it is that it not only helps you identify the mushroom but also shows any dangerous mushrooms it resembles and then has a very nice section covering ways to preserve and/or prepare your finds. We've tried a couple of the suggested recipes and they were quite tasty!

Anyway, This brings me around to our recent trip to the north woods of Wisconsin. The cabin we stayed in was surrounded by mushrooms of all sorts - large and small, sublime and stinky, unique and common - and I tried to take pictures of them all! I'm pretty sure everyone was tired of me exclaiming "Ooooh, look at this!" and having it be... yes... another mushroom... Unfortunately, I had to also delete some of the fungi photos I took since I needed the space on my camera for boating trips, sunsets and the like.

The photo below isn't mine but it looks EXACTLY like the mushroom I saw in Wisconsin but missed getting a picture of. It's called a Stinkhorn. And PHEW! Does it ever STINK!!

Here are a few shots I did take that made the cut (click any photo to see the larger version):

Here is the strangest mushroom I found - a type of coral mushroom

And here are the largest, which measured about 6" across the cap, and the smallest, which measured just under 1/8" across the cap.

I was able to figure out what some of them were but others are still a mystery. If we get invited up again, I'll be sure to take my favorite mushroom book!! Won't that make everyone sooooo happy? :)