A search of a different kind...

A professor in HPS is a keen mycologist (someone who studies fungi) and every year leads a big fungus hunt for the department's seminar series, the Cabinet of Natural History. At this year's hunt, the weather had been really dry so we found very few fungi (though we had a lovely walk through the woods). Nick J was disappointed, so last week, after a few rainstorms, he organized a mini fungus hunt for only as many people as would fit in his car. As last year's organizer of the Cabinet, I was one of the lucky few!
So two grad students, a postdoc, and Nick J snuck out of town on Friday morning, with a car "boot" full of "trugs", these wooden baskets that are traditionally used for collecting fungi. (I asked Nick why he used them, and he said they were "purely decorative". :) ) The woods were super foggy and muddy and just beautiful. We ran around and collected mushrooms, Nick running around more than any of us, and then he identified our finds and made a big fuss over every one, like "This is very uncommon!"or "Wow, a Death Cap! Deadly poisonous." :)  The rest of us said things like, "Wow, look at that color" and "Huh, this one is slimy, let's throw it back..."

Cloudcaps! Very tasty, according to Nick.

We collected an entire trug full of edible mushrooms, including some boletes (that was my favorite kind of mushroom when I collected fungi for a mycologist as an undergrad - they're like little squishy sponges!). Boletes "bruise" when you squish them, and the bruise color is important for identifying the species. Nick J bruised these boletes with my name and the other student's (Ramona). Very scientific. :)

The trug of edible mushrooms, some labeled...

My other favorite find was a little squat russula mushroom, very cute and toadstool-like, with a white stem and purple cap. Nick said its Latin species name meant "the russula that's like a girl"! A girly russula - awesome. And what was I wearing that day? A purple sweater and white down vest. My mushroom matched me!

Another super important way to identify species is sniffing!

Nick would say things like, "this one smells of aniseed", or pineapple, or sulphur. We said things like, "this smells like mushroom..."

We also found a fairy ring - when mushrooms grow in a circle! Very symbolic in English mythology, apparently. See the white mushrooms growing in a big circle?

A huge fly agaric - the red and white spotted mushroom from Mario Bros video games! And it's SUPER poisonous. Cool.

Well, that was a great way to spend a Friday. :)