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December has brought one of my favorite activities- exploring nature in search of mushrooms. So I've written a few things about mushroom for you today.
How to explore and what are they?
Benefits of being on the ground
Nature journaling mushrooms
Marvelous Mushrooms Course
Naming
How to find mushrooms in nature
Your nature invitation
Here in the northern hemisphere it has transitioned to winter, and this year we’ve had small rainstorms scattered over the past two months. With moist weather, the underground fungus sprouts it’s fruiting bodies from the soil, humus and decaying wood to spread its spores. And with it, provide food for animals, insects and humans!
My daughter and I enjoy exploring the nearby forests to capture the mushrooms with camera and nature journal. We don’t forage for eating- we just enjoy seeing the lovely forms and colors and appreciating them!
Explore with wonder and curiosity, be delighted and feel awe
Its like an Easter egg hunt- scanning low on the ground on fallen logs, under the leaf litter, or up high on the trunks of trees. Sometimes they are brightly colored, and other times blend in well with the background.
Our strategy is to explore with reverence and respect for nature. Sometimes we have seen mushrooms that look as though someone kicked and stepped on them. 🙁
We often leave the mushrooms in place, and especially if there is only one of its kind visible, using a mirror to look under the cap.
If there are a few, we might pluck one to get a closer look, smell, touch and draw it, and we often leave it there so that it can continue to spread its spores and feed the earth.
In this process of wandering and seeking these beauties, we are learning about mushroom ecology through our own observations. I'm not in a rush, and I'm slow to identify the which ones are edible..
I do love eating mushrooms, and I'm learning how to identify the edible wild ones. For now I buy cultivated ones from local mushroom farms, or foraged from those who are experienced!
What are they?
Mushrooms are the fruiting parts of a much larger organism, a fungus. So plucking a mushroom won't hurt the fungus, its like taking an apple from a tree. However, be mindlful that it spread its spores from the mushroom, so don't take all the mushrooms.
The fungus is often not visible to us because the it lives underground, extending far and wide! Some types of fungus live on dead trees and decompose the tissue, or carnivorous ones eat away on live trees, or underground attached to the root tips of trees and plants, sending nutrients and communication molecules through the forest🌲!
Researchers like Dr Suzanne Simard have run experiments to understand fungal networks and have found, among many things, that provide a network for communication, and resource sharing - sending nutrients back and forth to the individuals that need them. (Read Dr Suzanne Simard's book Finding the Mother Tree)
Ground Level Benefits
One benefit of seeking mushrooms is that it gets me close to the ground. When I kneel I'm close to the earth, breathing in the sweet smells from the soil, humus, fungus, leaf litter.
We've evolved on this planet along the soil microbial life. Research shows that beneficial soil micro organisms help with our immune function. We collect (inhale and ingest) them when we work with the soil, or sit on the ground or walk barefoot. Its good for us, adults and children, to spend time on the ground!
Earthing or Grounding 👣
Although native inhabitants have traditionally walked barefoot, slept outside, foraged from the wild, and spent most of their lives in nature, we in modern times unfortunately spend very little time outdoors.
Earthing is an activity that brings bodily contact with the earth's electric charge through application of a specialized pad or just by walking barefoot. Many health benefits of earthing have been identified from calming your nervous system, reducing inflammation and pain, increased blood flow and healing wounds, improving sleep, more energy and better mood.
Walking barefoot, and even sitting or lying on the ground (on a lawn, sandy beach, or grassy hillside) can help with calming, and reduced stress. So, getting on my hands and knees to take closer looks of our mushroom friends not only bring me delight and joy, but added health benefits!
Ever since Richard Louv published The Last Child in the Woods, highlighting the adverse impacts of insufficient time in nature on children, a significant amount of research has been dedicated to this topic. Adults experience similar consequences of nature deficit disorder, as we spend most of our time indoors and in front of screens.
So get outdoors more often! Eat your lunch outside, walk around the building on your break, step out to watch the sunset or sunrise, look out the window and crack it open to hear the sounds...
Using a Nature Journal with Mushrooms
Mushrooms just so delight me! Its such a joy to discover them, and get to know them from year to year. They come in a variety of colors, textures, shapes, locations, and the appear in different seasons.
I love sketching them in my nature journal, and drawing helps me see them with more detail. The more I practice imperfect sketches, the better I get and more confidence I grow in my skethcing skills.
I remember them better when I nature journal them. I am learning from the direct observations with each encounter, gathering more and more nature knowledge and appreciation for the wonder of fungus!
The Offical Names and the Personal Names
I have a background in science, and we've been trained to learn the scientific name of organisms. The come in a two part name, binomial nomenclature that is based on how they are realted to other organisms. Like Phoca vitulina for the harbor seal, or Turdus migratorius for the American robin.
Because common names are not standardized, its necessary to use the agreed-upon names scientific names when you want to talk to folks around the world about a specific species.
However, this focus to get the right name can take away from exploration, curisoty and wonder.
Its okay to not know the name of something, this is how we learn.
Its okay to give it your own name too, because this helps in creating a connection to it as you learn more about it.
An unknown mushroom might be named "speckled scarlet cap" or "gnome hat" or "pancake mushroom". This gives you a way to talk about it, and remember it.
"What's the name?"
As a nature journal teacher and naturalist I've noticed that both adults and children often ask me, as soon as we encounter something, "whats the name of that (bird/flower/mushroom)?"
I have observed that after I tell the name, the curiosity stops and they move on to the next thing, gathering more and more names. We have been trained to believe, that the value is to get the right name, but I don't believe that.
If I don't know, I answer in a cheerful (not defensive) manner, "I don't know! Let's take a closer look and see what details we can find!"
If I DO know the name, I'll still encourage them to explore more and help them look for clues, describing the color, shape, location etc and have them draw it in their journals. This gets the observation and curiosity flowing!
But I always say that even if you DO know its name, like a common raven or russula mushroom, "you've probably never seen this particular one! So let' take a closer look and see what else we it can show us!"
Have a sense of wonder and curiosity.
If you enjoy mushrooms and nature journaling as much as I do, please check out my 🍄Marvelous Mushrooms online course. It is self-paced so you can watch and journal along at your own timing. Replays from new workshops will be added as they are recorded.
I go over some basice parts of mushrooms and what to look for. How to sketch in a simple and easy way.
How I find mushrooms!
I just like going out to a spot and wandering slowly, scanning the ground and the trees, but I dont do this with intense eyes, but soft eyes and expand my view. Enjoy all the other natural elements along the way: trees, bird song, lush mossy, colors, textures, etc.
This is what it looks like on the trail, and how I first see the mushrooms.
In a pine and oak forest, can you spot the mushroom?
In the pine needles emerging at the foot of the ferns
Behind a small, bushy pine tree, growing out of a stump.
And these are the same three spots but zoomed into the mushrooms!
When you find them, be gentle. Get down low. Get a photo up close and from ground level. See the world through mushroom eyes!
You can lean in and smell. It there are a number of them, i gently remove it to get a closer look at the different parts. Does it feel dry or sticky? smooth or rought? hard or flexible?
I had local mushroom experts confirm that you can safely touch mushrooms without harming yourself.
Toxic mushrooms sicken you if you eat them. So, I have faith in your common sense, so just don't eat mushrooms unless you are skilled at proper identification.
Your nature invitation:
Go out into nature and keep your eyes opened for mushroom friends.
If you arent able to find mushrooms, you can:
Grocery: Get mushrooms at the store or farmer market and nature journal them before you cook them. (and you can even nature journal after your cook them too!). The white button mushrooms, brown crimini, burger-sized portobellos, and if you are luckier, oyster, shiitake, enoki, mushrooms!
Mushroom Identification book: get at the library. Look through the book- what catches your attention? sketch and write your observations, notes and questions!
iNaturalist: online or app: search by location, and see what mushrooms others are finding. You can sketch from photos to practice notcing details. or visit those locations!
Find a local mushroom group and join them on an outing!
Have fun, find the extraordinary in the ordinary! Sketch and journal, and share with others!
More Nature Journaling with Melinda
If you want to learn more about how I nature journal:
Visit my courses page
See my event calendar for live workshops
Check out the Spark Collective community- to join me for learning and sharing nature journaling. Free trial here.
Want to learn which one is right for you? Hop on my calendar for a free call!
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