Monday, September 26, 2016

Forgotten Wonders Beneath the Trees • fall series re-emerging




The fall season can not only produce a vast variety of colorful and engaging species, but a wealth of delicious edibles such as lion's mane, hedgehogs, chicken of the woods, hen of the woods, puffballs, honey mushrooms, oysters, lobsters, beefsteak, plus a variety of milk mushrooms, chanterelles and boletes. This series covers fall season finds in Ohio from 2012-2015. Fruiting periods usually start in late September through mid to late October depending on rainfall patterns. Enjoy the charms of this gorgeous season!


Friday, August 12, 2016

Forgotten Wonders Beneath the Trees : West Virginia Summer series


The West Virginia fungi series covers my two trips with my wife to the northwestern Monongahela National Forest in the amazing summers of 2012-13. Those summers produced an overwhelming amount of rain which made good for a vast diversity of species to be found. I have never witnessed to this day such a diversity of fungi species all in one weekend like that in my entire life of photographing them. I want to personally thank former OMS President–Walt Sturgeon for his lead on the area and perfect timing to this treasure trove of species. Without Walt's lead, I may have never encountered many of those species on just a regular trip out to West Virginia as many summers can be quite dry with little to no species fruiting.

My wife and I love West Virginia and have also enjoyed helping out with the West Virginia Mushroom Club's excellent foray in 2013. They do these annually every year and have an excellent line-up of speakers and fungiphiles gather from all over the states and locally to enjoy the charms of the forest and bring further knowledge to others that love fungi as much as we do. So the next time the heavy rains arrive in the summer, you might want to plan a quick trip down there as it's well worth it!






Monday, July 25, 2016

Forgotten Wonders Beneath the Trees • summer series re-emerging



Well it's been about three years since my last update to my ongoing Ohio fungi series. This series along with my upcoming West Virginia fungi series has been a project in the works due to amount of editing and identification work through hundreds of photos taken from the summer of 2012 to the fall of just last year. As with most hobbies, the deeper you go into it, the more work you create for yourself. But finally the new additions to this series will unfold this year and next as I will be posting each season again to show you what beautiful gems you can find on the forest floor and where you may find them in Ohio.
I have long anticipated to get this series out there and the summer installment is by far my very favorite time of the year for finding the most colorful and enchanting species out there. Fungi colors can range the entire visible spectrum between the months of late June through August in most regions of Ohio if you look in right places at the right time. Plus this season is the best time of year to truly find a diversity of edible species contrary to what so many may believe to be is in the spring and fall seasons. You can find a diversity of edible boletes, chanterelles, russula and lactarius species alone, along with oyster, trumpet, lobster, parasol, hedgehogs, bear's head and lion's mane. Summer is the season for fungi, so next time you are out in nature keep your eye to the forest floor for some of these species. Enjoy the charms of summer!


The new additions to the Summer series can be seen starting on page 2 here:


or directly from my photo stream here: