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While working on the Oregon Responder in Astoria, Oregon, I developed my love of mushrooms and mushroom hunting. The Astoria area is a veritable heaven for mushrooms and I was able to learn may different spicies. I started out identifying whatever I found and after I had identified a species several times I would (if it was an edible variety, of course) try a taste. I don't suggest this method of learning as I had an extremely unpleasant experience, lucily only one, with "mild poisoning" by jack-o-lantern mushrooms.
Please don't eat any mushrooms that you haven't checked out with someone who both knows their mushrooms and who has tried the specific vaiety before. . . I can't say it any better than what a fellow mushroom hunter once said: "there are only two kinds of musroom hunters: careful ones and dead ones"
After I moved back to Corvallis, I began to study mushrooms and increase my efforts at mushroom hunting. The woods around Mary's Peak are also a great location for mushroom hunting as are most of the locations on the coast range of Oregon. . . actually, it seems that everywhere I go, there are mushrooms there too! (oh yea, not too many in the desert).
Following are a collection of pictures I have taken of mushrooms as I found them. Many of these mushrooms are poisonous! so please don't just rush out an pick whatever you see. Learn about each mushromm like you would a 300 lb, angry motorcycle enthusiast. I have tried to take pictures in the mushroom's natural "habit and habitat" as that seems to be the key for locating them. I also include naration to describe my observations as best as I can.
So without further ado:
Gemed Aminita Mushroom growing on duff on the side of a slope. This picture was taken in a forest of mixed pine and fir with a broken canopy on Mary's Peak. This little guy is just past the "button" stage and measures about 1.5" across the cap. The mature mushrooms are 3" - 6" across. These mushrooms are found both singly and in small patches.
Panther Mushroom also growing on duff in a forest of a mixed pine and fir with a broken canopy on Mary's Peak. These mushrooms are very similar to the gemed aminita but grow larger in size. This one is about 3" across the cap and may grow up to 10" across.
Chanterelle, ah chanterelles. They are a great mushroom with so may varieties growing around the world. Most of these pictures are from the Pacific Northwest but I also have pictures of chanterelles from Georgia.
Coral Mushrooms These pictures are from the Pacific Northwest near Marys' Peak.
American Caesars Mushroom growing on the duff of a southern pine stand in Georgia. This mushroom is quite large at 6" to 12" in diameter and up to 16" tall. These little guys are 4" and 8" tall and only beautiful little babies.