Rhize of the Rhizomes

  OK, I know that not all mushrooms have a rhizome. But the title rolled off the tongue better than "Rise of the Mycellium" or any of the other options. And it is the title that might be the first thing to grab your attention. Kind of like the colour of the fungi in the woods are the first thing that you notice.

  The other day we went for our morning walk and almost as soon as we entered the forested track we started to notice the number of mushrooms blooming. This was shortly after the latest rain and it seems the added moisture gave the fungi community a real lift.

  We were really boggled by the number of mushrooms that we saw as we stopped to look. The variety was truly amazing. The more we looked the more we discovered, they were everywhere. Some were so tiny that you had to watch where you put your feet to avoid crushing them.

Your eye would be captured by a large yellow or red mushroom and as you looked at that you would notice a tiny, white, brown, yellow or red one peeking their heads up out of the moss or leaf mould. It was truly amazing to see so many types in such a small area.

   I truly have no idea if any of them are edible and don't honestly trust myself to read a book and feel comfortable trying a foraged mushroom. I read one time that the leading cause of death among mushroom experts was mushroom poisoning. So with my luck, I decided to give this learning experience a pass. I will stick to snapping photos and tempting the visual palette rather than the culinary palette on this topic.

   As we walk through the woods on the warm days of summer when the wildflowers are waning and colour seems to be a little harder to find. Head into the shade of an old growth forest. The shade is cooling and as you look around your feet you may start to see the colours that nature has placed in one of the more unlikely spots.

   As you look at them, see the one that caught your eye, then look around to see what you might have missed if you hadn't stopped to take a look. I  bet that there are a few more there waiting to be discovered.

   They come in all shapes and sizes, on the ground, on rocks on trees both dead and alive.

It may add a bit of time to your walk but by the time you have finished you may realize that you went further than you had planned and you are not nearly as tired as you expected to be. The frequent stops let you stay in your comfort zone for a longer period of time and being in the woods, with its quiet and relaxation may have made you much more relaxed than when you started. So get out and see what might literally be right under your feet.