Intro to Blog and Post One: Fabulous Fungi

To those of you who have been to the beautiful Bumping River Valley, you already know that it is a special place. Maybe you camped there as a child or drove in as an adult on a road trip through the Cascades or gather each year for a family reunion. Whatever your experience, this small corner has a unique place in your heart, and you care about it.  

Of course, there are many scenic spots in our lovely state, but somehow Bumping is extra special. Is this just our imagination because of an emotional connection? Are we biased?

Perhaps, but I will suggest that this area is unique and quite extraordinary. Tremendous diversity, relatively intact ecosystems, a fascinating human history, and long familial legacies are all wrapped up in a setting worthy of a travel poster. I have described much of this in my book, Tanum, but there is so much did not make it in!

On these pages, I will be highlighting some of the lesser known charms of the Valley past and present that I find fascinating but are often overlooked. The more diminutive plants and animals that reside beneath our feet or below the surface of the water or the quirky, one-off characters that didn’t quite merit a newspaper article are the subjects of what follows.

 

The wild world of fungi is a great place to start since the Bumping River Valley has such an interesting mix of them, specifically mushrooms. You all have probably noticed ‘shrooms of different shapes and sizes pushing up through the duff after the gentle encouragement of cool fall rains. What you are seeing is the fruiting part of a much larger network of an underground organism. The hidden root-like mycelium connect to tree roots and help deliver nutrients to the great monarchs of our forests. In return, the mushroom mycelium are fed sugars from the tree.

In the northwest, we have mushrooms that look like frozen waterfalls, others that resemble delicate coral, and some that are dead ringers for pinecones but there are a few that are so weird I cannot resist sharing more about them. Here are a few that I have encountered over the years.

 

The first looks like a white potato at the losing end of a duel. It called a Bleeding Tooth (Hydnellum peckii). The bleeding part of the name is obvious, and “tooth” refers to the fact that this is what is known as a toothed fungus, with little spikes on its undersides. The teeth don’t show but the startling liquid oozing from pores glistening in the shifting forest light sure does! As the mushroom ages, internal hydrostatic pressure drops, and the sap-like “blood” eventually disappears.

 

Another strange looking mushroom is this lumpy thing rather appropriately named a Brain mushroom (Gyromitra esculenta) which are quite common in the area in the springtime. As it grows, the hollow cap and stem become increasingly lobed and wrinkled. Though many do not share my fondness for this mushroom’s appearance, I have found it glows quite beautifully when back lit by the sun.

 

These slippery looking globs growing out of a downed log are commonly called Witch’s Butter (Dacrymyces sp.). They are diminutive and seem to ooze out of the cracks in the wood. Their name suggests the suspicion and even hostility that is directed towards so many fungi, mostly undeserved in my opinion.

 

 

Golden Cone Jelly (Heterotextus sp.) is another mushroom that grows on wood. This can be annoying if it is your picnic table but as a service in the forest is very helpful. Many fungi feed on dead wood and help break it down into soil that can then be utilized by new life. If fungi and other organisms did not attack and decompose dead wood, our forests would quickly be overcome with downed trees stacked up to the sky.

 

      These perky little spears are ominously but aptly named Dead Man’s Fingers or sometimes Dead Moll’s Fingers (Clarvaria purpurea). In some places where they grow, the fungi reach out of the ground in a menacing way with gnarled and blackened digits. Some species even appear to have fingernails at their curved tips. In the Bumping River Valley, the “fingers” are a little more friendly.

 

 

     Maybe you have observed this organism before and wondered what the squishy looking goop is? It is not exactly a fungus but a slime mold. This one, with the rather revolting but nicely descriptive name of “Dog Vomit Slime Mold” is the most common slime mold in our area.  A slime mold is a mixed up organism which is neither plant or animal or fungus but something in between with characteristics of each. Like so many other organisms that look strange, slime molds are in fact important decomposers and recyclers of the nutrients in the forest food web. Surprisingly, though they don’t have a brain, slime molds can coordinate their interconnected parts and move (albeit very slowly). Even more remarkable, is that in a lab setting they have demonstrated the ability to navigate a maze to a food source and can anticipate food rewards.

 

These tiny spheres are not salmon eggs but a different type of slime mold, perhaps insect egg slime mold. They made a beautiful contrast to the mossy, wet log and a welcome burst of color on a gray fall day. The moist and nutrient-rich forest litter of the Cascade mountains is ideal habitat for many species of these diverse and amazing creatures.

 

As you ramble along the trails of the Bumping River Valley you might take the time to look more closely for the humble mushrooms which are performing such a valuable service to the forest. And as you walk you can imagine the vast network of interconnected life beneath your feet which bind all of the inhabitants together in a great breathing, pulsing tapestry of life.

 

Disclaimer: The mushrooms described here range from (marginally) edible to poisonous. I do not comment on edibility because mushrooms vary greatly in appearance and toxicity. You should NEVER eat a mushroom unless you have been mentored by a trusted expert. Do NOT depend on the internet to guide your culinary choices when it comes to mushrooms!