Foraging Journal 2020

I haven't posted anything in a few weeks, so the pictures here represent a few different hikes and forays around the southern end of Vancouver Island.

Of course, these are just the highlights, but there were many great and interesting finds.

The cauliflower below is the grown up version of the "sad" cauliflower mushroom I posted a while back. I was a bit put off by the pale yellow colour since some sources say that this means the specimen has gone bad. However, I took a chance and it turned out to be harmless as well as delicious.

Another excellent find were the many Cortinarius mushrooms that are good for dying. You can see a pile of them below. I think the haul includes Cortinarius semisanguineus (yellowish cap, red gills), Cortinarius smithii (brown-red cap, red gills), and Cortinarius croceus (yellow-orange cap and gills).

We also found pine mushrooms! You can see and read more about those below.

So I took a walk today with the express purpose of finding liberty cap mushrooms (Psilocybe semilanceata).

These mushrooms are known to appear in old wet pastures, so that's where I went looking.

I was generally surprised with the lack of mushrooms ( given our recent weather), but I eventually managed to collect a variety of little brown field mushrooms that were not liberty caps.

I'm still a novice when it comes to liberty caps, so perhaps I missed something, but I'm pretty certain that none of the mushrooms pictured below are Psilocybe semilanceata.

I'll keep trying for a few more weeks to see if I can find the elusive liberty caps. Any tips welcome!

If you live somewhere in the southern to south-central region of Vancouver Island, and you're interested in mushroom hunting, then you have to visit the Cowichan River Valley.

The Cowichan Valley has a magical climate for fungi, both warmer and wetter than the surrounding area, so it's a great place to find all kinds of mushrooms.

We payed a short visit from the 17th to the 18th and it did not disappoint. We found chanterelles pretty much everywhere we looked, as well many varieties that we don't usually find elsewhere.

Overall, we collected about a coffee-table's worth of chanterelles, including some absolute giants. Unfortunately, no pine mushrooms, but we'll keep looking, and we'll definitely be returning for some off-season camping next year.

I visited the University of Victoria campus last week, remembering a spot where I'd seen death cap mushrooms the previous year.

Sure enough, there were death caps growing there again. Left and below you can see three pictures I took of these mushrooms, showing their development from pale green and white "eggs" poking up through the grass, up to the mature mushroom with light-brown cap.

For more detail on how to identify death caps, read our page on poisonous mushrooms.

We also found many slippery jack mushrooms (Suillus luteus) which we harvested and have been eating since. These mushrooms are most associated with pine trees.

Slippery jacks have quite smooth caps (not grainy or scaly) and also aren't that slippery when dry. Make sure to peel them before cooking.

A short trip down the Galloping Goose turned into an excursion when we found a side trail leading into some promising-looking woodland.

Thanks to all the recent rain, there were a number of mushrooms popping up.

We found oysters, russulas, some slimy gomphidius (Gomphidius glutinosus), and many boletes (mostly of the Suillus genus).

The most exciting finds are pictured here. First, a cluster of chanterelles which I suspect are Cantharellus cascadensis. This variety is considerably larger than other chanterelles, with a noticeable contrast in colour between the gills (pale) and cap (bright yellow). They have a short stature, often resulting in them being hidden under moss, and grow in isolated but crowded clusters.

The other main find was a large number of shaggy parasols. We have three varieties in British Columbia: Chlorophyllum rachodes, C. brunneum, and C. olivieri. Along with some other features, these are mostly identified by having pale spores and staining orange when bruised. Avoid green spores, or any parasol-like mushroom with red, orange, or pink scales.

Over the past two weeks or so I've visited a number of south island spots, including a new location around Shawnigan Lake.

While mid-islanders are reaping a bumper harvest of golden chanterelles, we're lagging behind down here. However, we have found more white chanterelles than ever (for us), and I've been enjoying learning more about these elusive mushrooms.

Other interesting finds include a large (but old) flush of chicken of the woods, a lot of dyer's polypore, and increasing numbers of puffballs, boletes, and even cat's tongue AKA jelly tooth mushrooms.

I also found a few false chanterelles (pictured right). Although these mushrooms occupy your mind when you're first searching for chanterelles, you soon learn that they're actually quite rare, so finding them is quite a novelty.

More rain should be coming this week, and then we'll be out looking for more golden chanterelles!

We finally replaced our stolen camera - so quality pictures are back.

And what better place to get pictures of mushrooms than Sooke Hills? The Sooke Hills park is undergoing some large "improvements" with a new parking lot, bridge, and a widened pathway.

Apart from those in the pictures, I also found some decent looking oyster mushrooms and one small, moldy chanterelle. There was also a suspected chicken of the woods, which turned out to be a ray of sunshine illuminating leaves in the distance.

I added one of the oyster pictures to our oyster page because it showed a rather prominent stem, which is relatively rare for oyster mushrooms.

The mushrooms to the left I think are Marasmiellus candidus.

Hopefully the park improvements are for the better and the area keeps its "quiet" feel.

We went to Lake Cowichan for some camping. Being a long weekend, the area was pretty busy. Lots of boaters and partiers - but the forests were quiet.

After a brief search we found some chanterelles not too far from the lake. And there were white chanterelles mixed in - the first I've found.

They seem to grow more squat than regular chanterelles, making them even more prone to being buried under leaves and moss. Overall, it was really dry and we found quite a few large, dried-out chanterelles around. The white chanterelles were in better condition - so maybe they prefer the drier weather.

The forests were also very mixed, with no tree or type of undergrowth clearly dominating. I think white chanterelles prefer slightly older forests, but still with quite a bit of overlap with gold chanterelles, hence them often being found together.

As you can see from the picture to the left, white chanterelles stain yellow and orange.

We took a trip to visit Rathtrevor Beach and I got to do some mushroom hunting while we were there.

I took a short walk and saw a lot of rosehips (left) and came across a surprise patch of very dry chanterelles (below).

Rosehips can be made into tea and jelly, and they grow in good numbers for these. They have a few too many seeds and hairs that can cause gastric upset to be eaten directly.

As for the chanterelles I found, I initially spotted some tiny buttons, barely 1 centimetre across the cap.

After searching around I found a few more larger buttons, and then after circling back again I found some more, well hidden beneath the branches and ferns. They were almost invisible.

I noticed that when chanterelles become dry they lose their yellow color, becoming more tan or tawny in colour, and they also become brittle. Some of the mushrooms snapped apart as soon as I tried to pick them.

Encouraged by all the reported chanterelle finds , we ventured out to one of our south island chanterelle spots to see if anything was happening.

Most chanterelle hauls were coming from the Cowichan area and regions to the north, so we weren't sure if anything would be fruiting this far south.

However, as you can see from the pictures, we found what we were looking for. Nothing huge - the picture of our chanterelles cooking below represents the entire haul - but there were signs that more were on the way.

Interestingly, we also found some chanterelle pins (below left), and some other mushrooms, like dyer's polypore, velvet-footed pax, and what we think may be angel wings (identification pending).

This park used to be a farm so it has a beautiful meadow dotted with various old fruit trees - promising ground for finding interesting mushrooms!

Perhaps our most interesting find was the veiled polypore AKA Cryptoporus volvatus (left). This mushroom appears as a hard, nut-brown bubble growing from the side of fir trees. With age they become more pale and dry, looking like cracked macarons.

They never lose their veil naturally (hence "veiled") and rely on beetles burrowing into their body to pick up and distribute spores.

The pictures below were taken at the same park.

On the long Easter weekend we took a long walk down the Galloping Goose trail near Matheson Lake in Metchosin.

The temperature was quite warm, and the area has many different habitats to explore.

We didn't find any interesting mushrooms (no morels), but we did find some interesting plants. For example, the Calypso or "fairy slipper" orchid (left).

Exceptionally delicate plants, care should be taken near them so as not to damage their roots. Apparently they develop a dependence on local fungi to survive.

On Saturday we visited Sooke Hills Wilderness Park for a short hike. This is a beautiful forest with a huge array of mushrooms to discover.

We didn't find any edible mushrooms to report this time around, but the park still offered more than enough to see.

For one, the informal south entrance is undergoing preparation for a new parking lot. A new parking lot will improve safety and could be followed by some trail renovations as well.

However, it also feels like our "secret spot" is about to be discovered. But really this area of the park is fairly well known and popular - hence the development.

The three pics below are from our short hike...