Mushrooms in Old Growth Forest

It's not every day I get to take a long hike through an old growth forest. It's such a magical feeling to be amongst such grandeur and beauty. My purpose of this walk was mushroom photos, of course. I was and still am (unfortunately) in search of a photo of Polyozellus multiplex, aka Blue Chanterelle. It's not actually a chanterelle at all, but that's another story I will leave until the day I have such a photo with which to share. Until then, here are some of my favorites from the hike.

Montana Boletes 2009

This has been one of the oddest summers here in SW Montana that I can remember in the 11+ years I've lived here and the boletes seem to be going along with it. Last year I was picking 20+ pounds each time I went and this year was more like 20 mushrooms per visit which just doesn't make sense to me but what can I say?

Usually my patch starts producing around July 8th but last year didn't start until the third week in July and then went well into the middle of August. That was pretty much the same this year also but I'm still finding some here and there.

This spot is primarily all Douglas fir trees and the elevation is over 6,800 feet asl. We've had cold snaps, lots of rain, then a little heat, then cold, rain and then heat. Yo yo weather for sure and now we are back to HOT!

I don't think I've ever seen so many slugs in the field. The slugs were eating everything like pirhana.

Look how many slugs are in this photo and the damage they did:

Picking Boletes... my alltime favorite!

I just love foraging for food and especially picking wild mushrooms. For the last week, my favorite mushroom of all has finally made an appearance in my mountain forests. I've been so patient this year as everything has been two full weeks behind schedule compared to the last several years. My Boletus edulis patch is no exception. I've been going up there and checking my spot since June 30th and going once a week since then and nothing until last Thursday a week ago. Finally, not only were there lots of them, but sadly, there were lots of blown out, old, fully spored and rotting ones.


Not to worry though, now that I've finally figured out how fast they can grow, I've got my finger on the pulse and won't miss any new and fresh emerging mushrooms from now on. I have to say I was amazed that I could go from no mushrooms at all of ANY kind, to full blown spored out mush in just one little week!

We had a little rain the day before I went up a week ago and then when I was there the day after that rain, I had found nothing. Then the following Tuesday, we had one of those crazy monsoon type storms that dumped a ton of rain in a matter of minutes, golf ball sized hail, sideways rain and winds up to 85 mph. When I returned to my spot just two days after that storm, I found all the boletes a person could dream of. So there you go...rain, rain rain = mushrooms!

Just to show you how much fun this is, and give an idea of the type of habitat and what these mushrooms look like, I've made a few little videos.

picking boletes video

porcini video

porcini video 3

porcini video 4

video 5

It's been a great season so far and I still have two weeks more to go! Now if only we could get a little more rain.....