Almost everyone knows porcini mushroom, death cap mushroom, chanterelle or fly agaric. Have you ever heard of golden fur spores, butterfly spores or hardwood resin spores (see photos below)? These are some of the mushroom species that Lisa Schäfer from Lisa Schäfer introduced to us on Sunday, October 27, 2024, during our mushroom tour in Frankfurt’s Oberwald Elderberry bush & tinder fungus brought closer.
More than 40 interested people came to find out about the diversity of mushroom species in the forest, where they can be found, and what different forms and lifestyles mushrooms have. We learned a lot in an entertaining and very interesting 2 hours. For example, it makes no difference whether you carefully twist mushrooms out of the ground or cut them off when collecting them. In both cases, the underground fungal network is not destroyed. This often enters into a symbiosis with forest trees, connects in the soil with the fine roots of the trees and enables an exchange – water for sugar. Beginners are recommended to unscrew the entire mushroom in order to make an accurate determination. In particular, a distinction can be made based on the stem base. And after unscrewing, close the resulting hole in the ground – with some soil, moss or damp leaves!
Lisa Schäfer also explained that the inexperienced mushroom picker should slowly familiarize themselves with the topic of “mushrooms” and use an identification book, for example. For example, you could initially focus on mushrooms with sponges such as boletus and then move on to other species (mushrooms with lamellae or pores). If you are unsure, it is best to leave the mushroom alone or you have the option of presenting your mushroom find to a mushroom consultant.
What else have we discovered? Fungi under deciduous trees, on tree trunks, on dead wood or in symbiosis with algae as lichens. Also the garlic dizziness, which smells and tastes like garlic; the yellow-orange milking helmetling, whose milk turns orange; the beech slime beetle, also known as the porcelain mushroom, which shines through like porcelain when held up to the light; the pear pollen, which blows spores into the air when pressure is applied to the fruiting body; the Judas ear, which looks like an auricle. The name is based on a legend – according to which Judas Iscariot, the disciple who betrayed Jesus with a kiss, hanged himself on an elder tree out of grief. In fact, this fungus is often found on older and weakened trunks and branches of the black elderberry.
At the end of the event, all the mushroom finds were sorted and Lisa Schäfer once again described their typical identifying features. All participants enjoyed the autumn day in Frankfurt’s Oberwald, had great fun going mushroom hunting and were thrilled to have the mushrooms they found identified with a lot of expertise and joy. See you next time in the forest!
