Testing 1, 2, 3,

While out on my walk today I was trying to remember when the mushrooms started to appear last year, and I couldn't remember. Interestingly I was listening to an audiobook by Charles Darwin (Origin of Species) in which he talks about his careful record keeping with pigeons.I guess I was inspired.

I didn't have my camera, but I did have my iPhone, so I took photos of the only mushrooms I could find during my walk. There were three types. Fir cone mushrooms, a small brown mushroom growing on the ground, and a slightly larger one growing on a tree.

I think I will just upload the raw photos from the phone without editing them in order to keep this simple. I will then attempt to identify them first with the Fungus app I purchased for my iPhone, and then see if the books I have confirm this.

Strobilurus trullisatus -- Fircone Cap

Using the key on my cellphone (Fungi) for the first time:

1. gills
2. cap: depressed
3. attachment: adnexed
4. stipe: bare
5. ecology: any

Gave three choices: Entoloma abortivum, Russula beturlarum, Russula sardonia.

Only the Entoloma abortivum seems close so I went to the books. Doesn't seem to occur in the Northwest. changed the attachment to free, but still nothing promising.

Browsed J. Duane Sept Common Mushrooms of the Northwest. Most likely Cortinarius cinnamomeus -- Cinnamon Cortinarius.

Went back to the phone and played around. Clearly I need to memorize the different attachments.  Mushrooms of the Pacific Northwest by Steve Trudell and Joe Ammirati use spore prints as a crucial step in identification. So I guess I will have to gather one and do a spore print.