Alaska Foray Species List — August 21-28, 2004

More were collected and our identifiers were diligent, but remember, this was a vacation! Some mysteries were left for another time, which rumor has it might be next year.

Our first foray to Skilak Lake yielded several species of Leccinum right off the bat. Some mushrooms were familiar, others were new. Both puffballs and moose nuggets were abundant, and at first glance it’s easy to get excited about the wrong thing! Bill and Gerri graciously opened their beautiful home to us for a fish feed, potlucks, tastings and mushroom ID.

One tasting featured Rozites caperata (rare down here and delicious!), Agaricus pattersonae, Leccinum insigne, Lyophyllum decastes and Laetiporus sulphureus. Outstanding Latkes with Leccinum were made by Paul Kutis, and chocolate mushrooms imported from Santa Cruz by Phred Molnar rounded out the sampler.

Mushrooming and hiking on the Kenai Peninsula were the primary, but by no means only, activity. Silver salmon were running and several people caught limits on multiple days. The sashimi was outstanding! Razor clams were abundant and succulent. Kenai Fjords and Prince William Sound were incredibly beautiful, and Homer is an interesting and picturesque town. The Pratt Museum had outstanding interactive displays about the area’s natural and cultural history and included a mushroom quilt in its collection. A number of people enjoyed swimming in the warmer pothole lakes.

All in all, it was a great trip and we had a lot of fun! Thanks to Bill and Gerri White for making it all possible.

- Debbie Johnson, Minister of Propaganda

More Species Observations

Sunny weather greeted us. It was warm enough that three forays included a dip in the lake, and though our last day wasn’t so warm, we still found the spirit to moon the tour boat at the glacier. We got a hoot from their guide: “There you have it, folks, and at absolutely no charge.” We turned, waved, laughed, and then hiked back out.

We had a few surprises while foraging. Lyophyllum decastes kept showing up in clumps at the base of trees. Now we know where they grow when they don’t have paths or roads. Leucopaxillus albissimus’s odor seemed off, and it didn’t always have forking gills. There were far too many unfamiliar cortices, though that doesn’t really fit well in ‘surprises’.

Igor Malcevski greatly improved the ID table: A Washington resident, he recognized many of the mushrooms with which we were unfamiliar. He also made clam tubes for several people to go razor clamming, and I think Bill White inherited them, should you go next year. By the way, Igor is trying to organize a Washington foray for next year - more to come on this subject.

We ended up with 81 species. The paucity of tree fungi was more a reflection of my unwillingness to ID these than their actual scarcity. Bill White did a couple. In fact, besides scouting for us and making the trip enjoyable for all, Bill spent a great deal of time at the ID table. An encounter with a hornet nest dimmed Henry’s enthusiasm at the ID table till near the foray’s end. Never seen him move quite so fast, either.

- John Brown, Science Minister

FFSC members can login for the complete list of species below.