It might be a slow wildfire season... but the heavy snows and abundant rains of 2023 have made for an excellent mushroom crop in the Uinta Mountains!
I chose an area with a high 2-week rainfall total, northeast aspect, and mixed aspen-conifer canopy to seek out these beauties!
Above: Wolf's Milk- Lycogala epidendrum
This is actually a slime mold, not a fungi!
Above: A wee puffball. Puffballs are edible; one just needs to be sure they are white and smooth inside- not the dark interior color of the poison pigskin puffball. And, most importantly, it can be easy to mistake a developing deathcap mushroom for a puffball, if one is not careful. Cut the puffball in half and ensure the flesh is smooth and monotonous, with no curving shapes of developing gills inside. It's always best to go foraging with an experienced myco-enthusiast if you're new!
Above: Honey mushrooms. Armillaria solipedus ("solid foot"). It's a good idea to avoid gilled mushrooms if you're a novice collector. However, honey mushrooms are one of the more easily identified species. They tend to grow on old rotted stumps or infected trees, and are actually one of the most aggressive pathogens of western forests. The largest living organism on earth is an Armillaria, in Oregon's Malheur National Forest. This fungus is distinguished by a cap and stipe that appears to have been sprinkled with cinnamon, decurrent gills (they run slightly down onto the stipe), and a ring (remnants of a veil which covered the developing gills, which is visible as a white ring around the upper stipe). Honey mushrooms are edible, but should be well cooked and never eaten raw or consumed with alcohol.
Chanterelles. This choice edible can be differentiated from its toxic look alike Jack O'Lantern in several ways. Chanterelles tend to be egg-yolk yellow, small (1-2" across), grow singly or in small clusters, have a scent of apricots, and have "false gills" which are thick, often branch, and do not bend as easily under pressure as true gills. Jack O'Lanterns can cause stomach upset if consumed. They are bright pumpkin-orange, tend to grow in larger clusters, can be 2-5" across, and have knife-edged gills, which bend sideways under pressure from a finger.
Porcini, or King Bolete, Boletus edulis. Recently named Utah State Mushroom, this is a choice edible and fairly easy to identify. Specimens tend to have a yellow-to-bun-brown cap and thick, white stipe. Spore prints are yellow-green. This is a pored mushroom, which spongy tissue, rather than gills or teeth, on the underside of the cap. Porcini have a fish-net textured tissue called reticulation on the stipe. Never eat a bolete that tastes spicy or bruises blue- these are features of non-edible genuses.
