The Nature Photography Thread

[guidofatherof5]

Very nice.
Anguis fragilis - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[ConcinusMan]

If i dont eat the morels faster than i pick them i try to save some to make a "spring chowder"..

Man, i found dozens of them when I went herping with a friend last week. I like them well enough but didn't bring a knife to harvest properly or anything to carry them in so I just left them. Better than pulling them out and ruining it for next year.

Here's some pics from the Columbia River gorge I shot a couple of weeks ago while herping for mountain kings (L. zonata)

Shot from the Oregon side looking at Skamania County, Washington across the river. That's where Washington's only population of California Mt. Kings resides and they can also be found on the Oregon side where I'm standing. I think it was too late in the day for them to be out but I spotted some western fence lizards; a sure sign you're in the right place.





A few pics from about 10 miles west of there reveals how quickly the climate becomes much wetter. Good spot for salamanders. There's species that live here in tiny micro-habitats and nowhere else on earth. Some of these habitats are deep gorges cut in the rock where direct sunlight never falls and where it can be 20 degrees cooler when you enter. On either side of you is a sheer vertical rock wall covered in moss as far up as you can see. Really amazing place.

[slipknot711]

gorgeous

[jwolfe152]

I have read you can harvest them by pulling them because the mycelium system dies once it warns up anyways and the way you make sure they come back is the spores and carrying them in a mesh back to spread them. A lot of mushrooms are the same way (according to some mycology (mushroom/fungus scientists) sites) i have done a good but of reading on a few species of mushroom ( psilocybin containing specifically)Awesome pictures by the way

[jwolfe152]

I finally found some morels. my brother in law bought a few to me this morning and after work i decided to go looking and found 2 this pic is the first one i found. I got home and fried them up real quick and they were as good as i remember.

[gibble888]

Thats a nice big one...im goin out on sunday so hopefully i can score....you are making my mouth water!!

[jwolfe152]

Yea every time i look at it i had 5 the big one and 4 average ones sliced them then nothing but flour with salt and pepper and fry DANG THEY WAS GOOD I'm going again this weekend to get a big ole mess (hopefuly) but goodluck on your trip i hope you find a big ole mess too

[guidofatherof5]

Yea every time i look at it i had 5 the big one and 4 average ones sliced them then nothing but flour with salt and pepper and fry DANG THEY WAS GOOD I'm going again this weekend to get a big ole mess (hopefuly) but goodluck on your trip i hope you find a big ole mess too

I found a big old mess in my back yard but it isn't edible. Lots of work to be done this weekend. Hope to find many a garter hiding in the mess.

[ConcinusMan]

I have read you can harvest them by pulling them because the mycelium system dies once it warns up anyways

Actually, they don't all necessarily die. I've had the same mycelium mat fruit 2-3 years in a row. But yank one mushroom out (instead of cutting the stem), which rips the mycelium and it's done. It won't fruit again. Now, each mycelium mat could fruit only once, but they can fruit multiple times usually no more than 3 consecutive seasons. It might not fruit twice anyway, but if you've been pulling them, that just ensures there's no way it will fruit again. Dropping spores doesn't ensure a crop next year as it can take several years of growth before they fruit.

If you hadn't ripped that out of the ground, and it's that mycelium's first fruit, you likely would have seen another fruit right there next year but it definitely won't happen now. I've always cut them and 8 times out of 10 I come back next year and they're fruiting in that same spot again. Never had it happen more than 3 years in a row but even twice is better than once.

The large size there tells me it's probably the first fruit. Second and third time, they are smaller and sometimes more numerous. Third fruits are usually very weak if they happen at all. The psychedelic species' mycelium mats can live for many years and fruit every year. That is until you get people out there ripping them out of the ground instead of cutting them.

We're all done with our spring mushrooms. It's been in the upper 80's several times since they peaked. The only spring mushrooms left now is some overly mature and drying Amanita bisporigera, Amanita pantherina, and Amanita muscaria which are all mildly toxic to deadly anyway.

[jwolfe152]

I know it takes up to 2 years for fruiting of spores for morels and some others. That big one was not the only one in that spot there was some very small ones, i didn't pick because they was so small, so hopefully they will continue there but maybe not because like you said they don't always come back in the same spot but just to be safe, because i can seen both points for how to harvest and why, I'll just cut them.

Now from what i have read on the growing of your own psychedelics like Psilocybe cubensis that you can get 3 sometimes 4 growths out of it but after that you have to make new jars. Now we could be talking about 2 different methods for growing. I'm not saying your wrong or lying that's just what i gathered from my reading, but i really like learning as much as i can about it so if you got any good places i can read about them (or any edible shrooms ) and cultivation that would be awesome. if you would rather continue this in pm that would be fine too