There aren't really that many deadly poisonous mushrooms in North America considering how many species we have, most we just don't know. This probably won't get you high either, haha.
One time I came across a massive flush of shaggy manes that had created a large fissure right across a well-used, hard-packed gravel logging road. They just split the earth open like it was garden soil.
Doesn't look too bad in the cross section but it ended up being pretty wormy through the rest of it.
They are really striking, a nice treat for me because I don't see them often.
This is also just anti-choice across the board because she was coerced.
I'm surprised we got these, season started out good but now we are going on almost 2 months with no rain in my area.
Yeah, I feel you. I've been seeing these for years and just didn't feel confident enough in my skills to eat them until this year. Now I don't think I could mistake them for much else. I do still check each one, there were some Hypholoma sp. growing pretty close to these, not incredibly similar but enough to keep you on your toes.
Yes, definitely what we usually do with new species but took a little extra care this time because GI upset seems to be common. When I got mushroom poisoning from the C. brunneum it was a group lunch so definitely learned my lesson, I think Chlorophyllum tends to cause a high number of issues too.
If Stereum doesn't check out you could take a look at Plicatura.
Don't think this is a lichen, seems to be a shelf fungus.
Kind of terrifying haha
Found my first lobsters the other day, I thought they were rocks spray-painted by forestry workers. We cooked the best one up with a little butter until slightly crisp on the outside. Honestly, I'm not sure why these are so highly regarded. The texture was similar to styrofoam, kind of mealy, not that different from Russula and the flavour was lacking. I'd still like to try them again, maybe it was just a subpar lobster.
So, after years of searching for chanterelles, I rock up to this massive flush of yellow mushrooms and thought oh, probably not but I better just check if chanterelles. As I got closer they looked more and more like chanterelles. I actually almost walked away from them because I didn't want to be disappointed again and they were not growing where I expected them to be, in a very dry spot out in the open, packed into gravel.
I was convinced these didn't grow in my area. I still haven't seen them in my immediate area but it does tend to be a lot drier than the surrounding areas. We picked maybe 3 lbs or more. All the trimmings were dropped in my usual spots with similar tree species to where I found them, just in case they had spores attached or had the urge to clone themselves. I don't usually put much stock in the whole 'use a net bag, you'll disperse more spores' thing but idk, can't hurt.
Anyways, I'm a happy hunter.
Info: https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/summer-continental-mycoblitz-2025
Love to participate in these types of events, I find they really help me focus on my observation skills and they're a neat way to get involved with sequencing if you have no idea where to start.
I gave a talk on outdoor mushroom cultivation this spring and gave everyone wine cap spawn to inoculate their gardens. Had an extra bag and was able to do a bed of my own. I was really impressed with how vigorous the mycelium was compared to growing other oyster species outdoors.
I will say these had a really strong flavour that was not my favorite. I left them longer than I wanted to so I could get a spore print to show my mushroom club so could have been better had I picked them younger
So I found a nice big flush of these guys and assumed R. brevipes even if it is a bit early for those in my area. I made a cut on the gills just to check if it was lactarius, this photo was after about 1-2mins of waiting for it to bleed. Uploading to iNat I always check my assumptions against the algorithm and it's top suggestion was Lactarius controversus - blushing milkcap. Now that I am looking at it the gills do have a rosy look to them. I couldn't find much info on how quickly L. controversus starts to bleed but maybe I didn't wait long enough. There was no zonation on the cap. Found under pine/spruce/fir/poplar growing closely scattered but fouund them in also a group of about 4-5. Northern interior of BC, Canada.
I'm pretty sure this is R. brevipes but would love feedback because I'm pretty inexperienced with ID and L. controversus wasn't even on my radar before uploading to iNat.
These are definitely my favourite homegrown mushroom to eat but my least favourite to grow (I just find them a little finicky). Not sure if this qualifies as a rosecomb mutation, but I did have actual rosecomb growth on subsequent fruiting from the same culture.
Cyclocybe aegerita
This is a citizen science project, anyone can participate so long as you are in BC! You do need to have a (free) iNaturalist account to join the project and submit samples, though.