Our first Spring Wildflower program this year is led by UT student Christine Braaten. In the group photo, she is 5th from the left. The program was titled "Edible Mushrooms" but she covered anything we saw and described some of the nastier mushrooms one might find later in the year. Mushrooms are not plentiful in the spring. We saw a couple morels, some polypores and not much else. Later in the summer, you should see mushrooms everywhere, particularly during wet periods.
We're in the Greenbrier area of the park, at Injun Creek Trail. I can't help but photograph some flowers while on this hike. The 3 wildflower scenes shown here are all in an area about the size of a front yard. Between the road and the river is a rich area. I walked here and couldn't resist.
Foam flowers were the dominate flower today. Some places they seemed to go on forever.
Christine had brought some morels to show us although we did find two almost immediately after starting our stroll. Morels pop up in the spring for only a 2 or 3 week window. Foraging in the national park is permitted for up to one pound of mushrooms. She prefers to pick young ones before the exterior starts to turn light brown and small pieces crumble off when handled. I'm happy to find them in any state and can't imagine what it would be like to find enough to be choosy. Next she found some Devil's Urn a small dark brown urn shaped fungus which grows on fallen wood in leaf litter. It is hard to spot.
Next we locate some Turkey Tail and False Turkey Tail. Both are polypores and look like fanned out turkey tails with multi colored zones. The underside of the False is smooth and the Turkey Tail underside is not.
Christine has reminded me not to forget the those "Ganoderma beetles" feeding on the Reishi. They are Megalodacne fasciata, the Red Banded Fungus Beetle.
We also found some coral fungus, dried witch's butter and shelf fungus.
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