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this is my contribution to #FungiFriday by @ewkaw
we were out searching in one of go-to places for mushrooms. we didn't pick any. it's not that we didn't find any but there were so few that we just took photos. when there are so few i prefer to leave them alone. there is not enough for a meal and the few that are there are the only ones to perform their important functions in their ecosystem. it is still not peak season so if we find more later in the summer we will not hesitate to harvest from the abundance.
i think this is a Russula aeruginea green russula but since i wasn't going to pick it i did not get to see under the cap or peel the skin to verify the identification.
it's not exactly a grassy green color but the birch tree in the pine forest habitat is an important clue
if i am correct these are tasty morsels for another day. we come here often enough so maybe...
a couple of details caught my attention. the little round hole with bits of pine needles crossed beside it
and that delicately jagged edge
sometimes it's the little details that make an experience special.
like i was saying there wasn't much in the way of fungi so i started focusing on other stuff
like flowers
and mossy rocks
and forest stuff
when all of a sudden
underneath this uprooted tree almost like inside a small cave was a seemingly tiny but bright bolete
i was quite surprised as this is an unusual place to find fungi
on closer inspection it was larger than i originally thought. it seemed to be either a Leccinum vulpinum foxy bolete because it was in the pine forest
or the more common Leccinum versipelle orange birch bolete
the foxy bolete has a better english name and there isn't much concern about it being potentially toxic but as i was only taking photos i wasn't so concerned about exact identification
i crawled down on my hands and knees and struggled to get my phone underneath the cap. the thin flat shape is an advantage when taking fungi shots with a phone
i managed to get a couple of shots, this one in black and white
and admired how it stands so erect all alone under the uprooted tree
i took all these photos with my S22 phone. Some have been edited on the free version of photoshop express