Fascinated By Fungi

Home
United States
Napa, CA
Fascinated By Fungi

Check out “Passport to Kingdom Fungi” 📖👀
(3)

Dr. Gordon Walker
UC Davis Biochem PhD
Wine/Yeast Researcher
Author, Scientist, Chef, Creator
*Respectful* Feedback Welcome
📍Napa, CA

Want to learn to learn more about mushrooms?

08/31/2026

I was so busy cooking and giving a talk at the NAMA Yoop foray that I didn’t get a chance to get out into the woods, but thankfully yesterday I took a hike up to a waterfall with some folks and found a phenomenal example of my bucket list mushroom for Michigan - . This is a white rot Polypore that grows on hardwoods, forming soft fleshy dense nubs when immature, slowing growing out into radial shelves as it matures, turning darker brown and becoming quite hard. It has a white pore surface that quickly discolors to brown when bruised or handled.
This mushroom grows across much of eastern North America (east of the Rockies), but I’ll never forget my first time finding it was Gabrielle Cerberville in Kalamazoo, Michigan. Gabrielle cooked it up for me with some simple seasoning and absolutely blew my mind with how tasty and meaty this mushroom can be. Even more so than chicken of the woods, this might well be the meatiest mushroom I’ve tried, reminiscent of pork or beef (still a mushroom).
Beyond it’s delicious culinary properties, the best thing about these are when you can find them dripping with amber droplets of guttation - a phenomenon where a fast growing mushroom exudes a liquid filled with organic acids and polyphenols. Presumably this is a metabolic waste product like sweat (or mushroom p*e), but it’s also been hypothesized that these droplets can serve as protection for the nascent nubs from insects and animals that might nibble on the tender flesh before the mushroom matures and has a chance to spread its spores. Either way, I think the on these is gorgeous and I’m so happy to be able to share it with y’all, cheers!

08/24/2026

Happy from the brilliant orange gills of this . This is a small saprotrophic (decayer) mushroom that tends to grow near conifers but also occasionally hardwoods (as this one was). It has pink spores and is brilliantly orange when young, fading as it matures.
This is one of my favorite colorful mushrooms to find and photograph in Massachusetts, very cool to find it growing in the same area year after year.

08/22/2026

to finish off Bolete week, here’s a mega photo dump of many, but not all of the East Coast summer bolete diversity I saw in Massachusetts. I find it endlessly fascinating how many different species they are and love trying to figure out what they are, sometimes it can be a real mystery. I’m grateful for the wealth of knowledge that is available through online communities and identification resources, like Mushroom Observer, iNaturalist, and Mushroomexpert.com (Michael Kuo). Over the years I have tried eating many of these species, some of them are better than others, but it is always fun to explore and experiment with a healthy degree of caution.
I will do my best to name these species, but keep in mind that I am still learning all of these and doing my best to identify them with the resources that I have available.
Hemileccinum longicurvipes

Hemileccinum longicurvipes

Xerocomus/Boletus morrisii

Not sure of this one but maybe Retiboletus griseus

Chrome Foot - Harrya chromipes

Pseudoboletus parasiticus growing on Scleroderma

Ashtray Bolete - Hemileccilnum rubropunctum

Ashtray Bolete - Hemileccilnum rubropunctum

Clustered Brown Bolete- Aureoboletus innixus

Butterball - Suillus weaverae

Chesnut Boletes - Gyroporus

Bitter Bolete - Tylopilus fellus

Bitter Bolete - Tylopilus fellus

Beveled Cap Bolete - Tylopilus badiceps

Violet Grey Bolete - Tylopilus plumbeoviolaceus

Xanthoconium affine

Whitey’s Bolete - Pulchroboletus sclerotiorum

Whitey’s Bolete - Pulchroboletus sclerotiorum

Pallid Bolete - Imleria pallida

Bolete Eater Mold - Hypomyces chrysospermus (species complex - probably needs microscopy to be sure)

08/21/2026

I’m almost done dumping bolete photos, but not quite. Today we look at the . The most distinctive feature of these boletes is the “ornate” raised webbing or reticulation on the stem (although not nearly as crazy as Frost’s or Russel’s boletes). They occur across much of North America east of the Rockies and tend associate with hardwoods like oak. Over the years I have noticed caps that are decidedly more greyish/brown versus being more pale yellow - my guess is that these are different varieties of the same species rather than the much darker Retiboletus griseus (but I could be mistaken on that one).
Like many boletes, Retiboletus are edible, I have cooked and eaten them on multiple occasions, however I found the flavor and texture to be decidedly mid (mediocre). They also undergo a color change and become almost black when cooked which is slightly unnerving. Some specimens were better than others, but some had a slightly bitter after taste. The jury is still out on whether or not these are worth picking as food - but I am open to suggestions on how to prepare them!
Either way I love finding these brilliantly yellow and highly textured boletes, hope you enjoy the pics and have a good weekend!

08/20/2026

Fairly certain these little porcini mushrooms are , an east coast equivalent of the King Bolete (B. edulis). They tend to have brownish-grey caps and associate with hardwoods like oaks. The stem is more often than not reticulated. Pores are white when young becoming more yellowish as they mature. There’s another variety “fagicola” with a much darker brown cap that associates with beech. These can be easily confused with Tylopilus species, but those lack reticulation and the pores are distinctly different in terms of their structure/spacing/size.
While these aren’t as large and impressive as the west coast porcini, I am still thankful to find these as they are still just as delicious (if not more tasty). As always, I am less confident in my east coast bolete identification skills (they’ve gotten rusty from several seasons of not finding boletes out east), so I’m open to feedback if you have suggestions.

08/19/2026

Behold, the , an absolutely gorgeous mushroom known for its velvety red cap, bright yellow pores, and two tone stem. This species occurs across much of North America, east of the Rockies, growing in the summer months in association with Oaks and other broad leafed deciduous trees.
Bicolors are utterly delicious mushrooms with a meaty flavor and toothy texture, but they can be notoriously difficult to identify as there are many lookalike red and yellow boletes across North America. In my experience, the things I look for are the bright red cap, yellow pores that stain blue but not dramatically so, a very shallow pore layer (this is key), lack of reticulatjon on the stem, and flesh that slowly and erratically stains blue (as opposes to uniformly staining blue quickly). I do not think it has a particularly distinct smell, most smells like a mushroom - not like curry or beef boullion (which some of the Lanmaoa lookalikes do). When hunting bicolors, be aware of Boletus sensibilis as this is a supposedly toxic lookalike.
The taxonomic definition of a bicolor has been complicated since the start. I recently read that the original collections of “bicolor boletes” contained up to 24 different species (as resolved by DNA sequencing). Many of the lookalikes have been placed in the genus Lanmaoa, which tend to have more dramatic and immediate blue staining reactions. In Asia, undercooked Lanmaoa have been the reported causes of little people (lilliputian) hallucinations, but when well cooked they are delicious edible mushrooms (despite what older books might say).
I am still learning about and attempting to master bicolors, but if nothing else, I appreciate how beautiful and utterly delicious they are.

08/18/2026

The diversity of boletes on the east coast (versus the west coast) is absolutely mind blowing. It’s such a thrill to find so many different kinds while out in the woods. Here’s another red to orange pored bolete that stains blue when the flesh is injured/exposed to oxygen. The blue staining reaction is caused by enzymatic oxidation or organic acids (like variegatic acid) in the mushroom tissue.
I’m not entirely confident in identifying this one, but best guess is that is in the genus Neoboletus or Suillellus - given the brownish cap, reddish orange pores, and granular dots on the stem (not reticulated/webbed). Alternatively, it has been suggested that this is Boletus vermiculosoides - but I’m pretty sure this species should be categorized as a different genus than Boletus.
In North America, red-pored boletes are usually regarded as toxic or at least best avoided by most folks. I feel like this is an unfair assumption, since I’d argue that the majority of red-pored boletes (excluding the genus Rubroboletus) are edible when thoroughly cooked (they can be mildly toxic when raw/undercooked). In China and Eastern Europe, these boletes are highly regarded and even considered a delicacy. I find the majority of them to have good texture, but the flavor tends to be kind of musty and sour (not my favorite), I’m still looking for ways to prepare these so I will enjoy them (open to suggestions).
Either way, I hope you enjoy this little educational demonstration of mushroom morphology.

08/17/2026

Behold, one of the most texturally impressive mushrooms you’ll ever see. This is , known for its coarse shaggy stem adorned with jagged exaggerated reticulation and bright yellow angular pores. The cap starts out velvety but start cracking into jagged patches as it matures and dries out.
I tend to find these during the summer months in Massachusetts under oaks and beech, but they occur across much of North America in association with pine and hemlock as well.
This is an edible mushroom, but its flavor and texture are somewhat lacking. The texture is very soft and the flavor is ok but not particularly notable beyond generally mushroomy. More fun to find and photograph these than to cook them.

Address

Napa, CA

Website

http://FascinatedByFungi.com/, http://fascinatedbyfungi.me/

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when Fascinated By Fungi posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Contact The Business

Send a message to Fascinated By Fungi:

Name:

Email:

Message:

Want your business to be the top-listed Photography Service in Napa?