They are some of the world’s most amazing — and critically important — forms of life. They come in nearly every shape, color — and odor. Some are among the world’s deadliest organisms; some are a gourmet’s delight.
We’re talking about mushrooms, which abound in our woods, fields, backyards and nearly every other niche of nature. As many as 5,000 mushroom species occur in the South, and many more probably remain undiscovered.
To get a glimpse of this great diversity close to my home, I tagged along with members of the Mushroom Club of Georgia last weekend for a morning walk in some woods near Clairmont Road on the outskirts of Decatur. Fall is a great time, in fact, to look for mushrooms.
For more than an hour, we fanned out through the woods to gather a sample of every mushroom species we could find and deposit them in our baskets. Finding the fungi wasn’t very difficult — mushrooms were growing nearly everywhere: on the shady forest floor among the leaf litter; on tree trunks, logs and fallen limbs; and in sunny, grassy areas. A soaking rain the day before our walk had helped many mushrooms pop up overnight.
Most common were several species of the genera Boletus, Amanita, Lactarius and Russula. Some, though, were tricky to identify.
At the end of our foray, we spread the morning’s harvest of some 50-60 species on outdoor tables to help identify the specimens and admire the variety of mushrooms found in our urban woods. Some of the species were stunningly beautiful — bright orange, neon yellow, deep purple.
“Our mushroom club is mostly about fun and learning about the world around us,” noted Sam Landes of Marietta, a club officer.
For more information, visit gamushroomclub.org.
Warning: Many wild mushrooms are poisonous and can even cause death. Never eat a wild mushroom unless you are certain that it is an edible species.
In the sky: From David Dundee, Tellus Science Museum astronomer: The annual Orionid meteor shower will reach a peak of 25 meteors per hour Wednesday night. Look to the east after midnight until dawn.
The moon will be first-quarter Tuesday evening. Four planets rise in the east in the predawn skies next week: Mercury, low in the sky just before sunrise; brightly shining Venus about three hours before sunrise; Mars, about two hours before sunrise; Jupiter, about two hours before sunrise. Saturn is low in the southwest at dusk and sets about two hours later.
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