Forest and Fungi
If you’d asked me before the walks started to name every mushroom I could think of, I’d list off those I’ve eaten: Shitaki, porcini, oyster, button, As I walked through the forests of Santa Cruz county and along the California coast, my cache of mushroom knowledge fruited and continues to expand. On our most recent trip in Mendocino county, I start walking toward a spray of orange protuberances sticking out of the ground. Jo said, “orange peels” and sure enough, I could see that I’d mistaken someone’s litter as fungi. But Jo wasn’t tsk’ing fellow hikers, she was giving me the common (and apt) name for this flavorless, but harmless fungus.
