In the second part of this series I showed you photos and identified a few of the mushrooms we found during a short walk in the woods with the Maine Mycological Association. We collected a few specimens and took them back with us for when the group met as a whole. Everyone else had collected a few samples of interesting mushrooms as well, and we laid them out on two picnic tables. All told there were around a hundred or more different types of mushrooms collected in a forty minute foray. I was completely amazed at all the mushrooms that were found in just one park.

Wild Mushroom photo gallery A


One of the mushrooms names, and looks, as well as other attributes became permanently burned into my mind, and nose. This is the Stinky Squid, Pseudocolus schellenbergiae. It has an absolutely fetid, disgusting, odor that reminds you of rotting squid guts. Actually, fermented squid guts don't smell anywhere near as bad. trust me, I've eaten them many times. But you couldn't get me to even think about getting a Stinky Squid mushroom near my nose, let alone mouth. They can be smelled many feet, sometimes yards away. It is not recommended to try to eat a Stinky Squid mushroom. Repeat, it is not recommended to try to eat a Stinky Squid mushroom. It is of the Stinkhorn family of mushrooms, all of which, stink. For many of the Stinkhorn family it is not known if they are edible. I guess no one was brave enough to get past their odor. Smart. I placed the Stinky Squid first in the gallery below. Too bad we don't have Smell-o-rama available for our blog, but then again, maybe that's a good thing.

Wild Mushroom photo gallery B

The other day I spoke about my interest in wild mushrooms. I showed you photos of the patch of 'shrooms at my local post office, and how it made me want to find out more about the various fungi that have been popping up all over the area this summer. I pulled out my wild mushrooms guides and tried to identify which were which, and learned that mushrooming is a lot more difficult to do safely than I realized. Also my guide books all seem to be a bit on the old side, with the newest two published in 1980 and 1981. So I ordered several brand new ones including the Audubon guide, Petersons guide, and others. But I didn't want to wait for them to arrive, so I contacted the Maine Mycological Association (MMA) and got a calender of events so I could forage for wild mushrooms with a group of experienced hunters.

I arrived early at the meeting spot in a park a half hour drive away on the Sunday of the MMA foray, and chatted with the 4-5 people who were there. Soon more people arrived, and more, and more. In all there were around fifty avid mushroomers gathered to gather. I immediately attached myself to the the assistant of the expert organizing the foray, and along with two others we headed into the trails through the woods.

I am going to let the photo galleries tell the story. The abundance of mushrooms, with their colors, shapes, and sizes, was amazing. We only walked through the woods for around 30-40 minutes and saw so many different types. I didn't have the time or inclination to identify all of them at the time, as I was so overwhelmed by the sheer amount of information. I was focused on hearing what the experts had to say, and taking photos. I will try to identify as many as possible from their photos and list them in the galleries, but many times the only way to get a strong identification is to actually have the mushroom in front of you. Let these photos be an introduction to the myriad of mushrooms hiding out in the woods and fields all around us.

Wild Mushroom Photo Gallery A- The first 15 minutes of our foray.