Mushroom Trek Near Loch Raven Reservoir

Just a short family walk near Loch Raven Reservoir yielded some pleasant finds. The girls had a great time looking for "the coolest" mushrooms.

The deer have had there way with most of what is trying to grow from the forest floor, but with very little effort and some concentration the hidden color of these fungi could be discovered just under the next leaf...

All these photos were taken with my iPhone by the way...

This was one of my favorites...

This was very "bonsai-like"...

Lu's Turtle

It's hard to see the butterflies in this photo. Just a simply sunny clearing in the middle of the woods. I need to find out what kind of flowering shrub this is because the butterflies were all over it! Very cool.

I'm not sure what this is but it looked like fungus...

The girls always find the most interesting stuff. It's great to see things through there eyes...

Here is a link to Tedtalks that I found very interesting. Mushrooms are truly fascinating...

http://www.ted.com/talks/paul_stamets_on_6_ways_mushrooms_can_save_the_world.html

Entrepreneurial mycologist Paul Stamets seeks to rescue the study of mushrooms from forest gourmets and psychedelic warlords. The focus of Stamets' research is the Northwest's native fungal genome, mycelium, but along the way he has filed 22 patents for mushroom-related technologies, including pesticidal fungi that trick insects into eating them, and mushrooms that can break down the neurotoxins used in nerve gas.

There are cosmic implications as well. Stamets believes we could terraform other worlds in our galaxy by sowing a mix of fungal spores and other seeds to create an ecological footprint on a new planet.

"Once you’ve heard 'renaissance mycologist' Paul Stamets talk about mushrooms, you'll never look at the world -- not to mention your backyard -- in the same way again."

Linda Baker, Salon.com