Tell me about your favourite mushroom
I think my past self used the word favourite just to irk me. I know that having to choose a favourite anything is hard. I love a lot of things and am not often hierarchical in my love. I think what my past self means is…what is a mushroom that brings you joy. Or makes you think. Or makes you go WOAH NATURE IS WEIRD.
I think that I love a lot of mushrooms. Morels because they remind me of foraging with my mom, and her being so worried I might pick a false morel. I spend so many hours pouring over mycology books with her. Mushrooms feel like beautiful outsiders. The Fungi Kingdom fascinates me. I fascinated in general by so many things. But fungi? Separate and distinct fascination.
So I’m going to go find a picture or video of the fungi that most recently made my head spin.
Nope. The internet is FULL of pictures and videos of these very alien things but most of them come with terrifying warnings of copyright infringement.
So instead of showing you a picture, I’m going to write you one. Then you can go an look them up yourself and see if I evoked at all the beautiful nightmare that is the Clathrus archeri.
I’ve never seen one in person but I’d bought a mushroom coffee table book and opened the page to what I am describing as a bright red starfish cracking itself out of an egg made of fabric. It’s spooky and it’s vibrant and apparently it smells horrendous and doesn’t last very long. So getting to see one is rare and only likely to happen in the English countryside?
Don’t believe me though, definitely “search it up” as my nearly 13 year old youngest child says. Tell me what you think. And if you have a mushroom or fungi that fascinates you, or that tastes amazing or that just tickles your fancy (where does that idiom even come from?) I’d love to hear about it.
Heart,
Wake
(I took this picture of this beautiful jelly fungi on a stump outside my house. You can use it. I give you permission.)
I love talking about mycelium and growing mushrooms! I'm going to have to go with the Psilocybe Cubensis.
My favourite is Morels, very tasty.