![\"Photo](\"http:\/\/naturalcrooks.com\/rambles\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/StrawberriesCreamFungusBigViewonNaturalCrooksDotCom.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nA Fungus That Looks Good Enough To Drink?<\/h2>\n
Although I\u2019ve never had the slightest interest in eating wild mushrooms, these ones actually looked rather appealing. They looked vaguely like a sweet dessert of some kind, at least at first glance.<\/p>\n
I wasn\u2019t quite sure what the juice was or where it had come from. It was a dry, sunny day after several other dry days so it was unlikely to be rain water. Yet the \u201cmushroom\u201d was dripping with not just beads of cranberry-coloured juice but also some small puddles of it.<\/p>\n I\u2019ve never seen a fungus that was wet like this before but I did think I remembered seeing photos of one.<\/p>\n A quick search on the internet found what is probably the correct type. (I would NEVER eat any mushroom or fungus based only on an internet identification, though! Please do not ever use my attempts at id to make a life-threatening decision either!)<\/p>\n UPDATE NOTE: Good thing I would never eat anything. Turns out my first id of these was DEAD wrong. They are not These are Blushing Rosette (Abortiporus biennis).<\/p>\n See https:\/\/www.inaturalist.org\/observations\/15573216<\/a><\/p>\n It\u2019s a good thing I didn\u2019t try to eat or drink them. The ones I saw seemed to be growing from the stumps of small trees which had been cut off flush to the ground. I had assumed that they were small Ash trees but now I\u2019m not so sure.<\/p>\n According to mushroomexpert.com<\/strong><\/a>, these fungi do usually grow in association with wood.<\/p>\n There are many websites that mention these colourful fungi but don\u2019t explain why they have juice.<\/p>\n I finally found an interesting article online by Erast Parmasto and Andrus Voitk that provides a clearly explained hypothesis<\/strong><\/a>. They think the moisture is just a by-product of rapid growth.\u00a0\u00a0 The excess water is exuded from the fungi in a process called \u201cguttation.\u201d In their photo example of a Hydnellum peckii from Gros Morne, they point out that the fungus is soft and light in colour, signs that it is freshly growing, which is likely why it still has fluid on the outside.<\/p>\n The authors say that the red colour to the juice is from \u201cterphenylquinone dye (or a derivative), a pigment produced by this genus of mushrooms.\u201d<\/p>\n Because my mushrooms were not H peckii I’m not sure if the dye is the same or not.<\/p>\n When I was looking at these small fungi at the Rattray, I noticed several nearby ones did not have the red juice on them. (In fact, I also did a quick check to see if there was an empty Kool-aid container anywhere around or a toddler in a stroller!)<\/p>\n Now I wonder if the \u201cdrier\u201d fungi were simply older or much younger and growing more slowly. Given that the day after I visited, the rains began and continued for several days, I guess I wasn\u2019t able to check.<\/p>\n I will keep an eye out for these strangely appealing fungi in the future, though!<\/p>\n Related Reading<\/strong><\/p>\n Join In<\/strong> In 2016, the Rattray Marsh temporarily had a wide wood-chip covered path very close to the Old Poplar Row parking spot. The path was used while the crews removed dead and dying Ash trees. I don\u2019t normally walk off trailaaa<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[595,45,622,596,621],"class_list":["post-5407","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-focus","tag-fungi","tag-fungus","tag-hydnellum-peckii","tag-mushrooms","tag-strawberries-and-cream"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naturalcrooks.com\/rambles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5407","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naturalcrooks.com\/rambles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naturalcrooks.com\/rambles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naturalcrooks.com\/rambles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naturalcrooks.com\/rambles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5407"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/naturalcrooks.com\/rambles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5407\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8689,"href":"https:\/\/naturalcrooks.com\/rambles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5407\/revisions\/8689"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naturalcrooks.com\/rambles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5407"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naturalcrooks.com\/rambles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5407"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naturalcrooks.com\/rambles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5407"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/a><\/p>\nStrawberries and Cream Anyone?<\/h2>\n
\u201cStrawberries and Cream<\/del>.\u201d formally called Hydnellum peckii.<\/del><\/p>\n<\/a>
\nUnless it died there by coincidence this ant or insect did find the juice toxic.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/del><\/del><\/p>\n<\/a>
\nThese were some other clusters growing nearby. The long yellow stem is from a regular maple leaf. These aren’t particularly big.<\/em><\/p>\nDo These Fungi Grow Directly from Wood Or\u2026.?<\/h2>\n
<\/a><\/p>\nWhere Did the Orange \u2013 Red Fungi Fluid Come From?<\/h2>\n
<\/a>
\nIt does look like the liquid starts as small beads which eventually join together and form puddles.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/a>
\nThe larger and possibly older drops and puddles are much darker than the small more clear orange ones. You can see the white structure and texture of the fungi better in this photo, too.<\/em><\/p>\n\n
\nHave\u00a0 you seen some of these juicy fungi? Please share your sighting with a comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"