Blue Damselfly

Todd Stoll ©
September 5th, 2025.
Realme phone camera

#Photography
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Happy St. Martin's Day and the compulsory feast, young wine tasting, roasted chestnuts and generally kind spirits everyone!

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In this family, late autumn foraging is all about these little guys, the Tricholoma portentosum, or charbonniers, streaked tricholoma, sooty head,...

We love them in lots of various dishes, from pizza, mushroom risotto, stews, oven fried, pickled as a winter preserve, you name it. They're great in every kind of way but I do have to advice caution not to pick them unless you're a seasoned forager with ample experience what to look for, because there's loads of very, very similar species of mushrooms that can be quite severely poisonous (see addendum).

Since now would be the time to find them in your local forests (northern hemisphere) and if they interest you but you lack experience in correctly identifying them, I suggest joining forces with some local mycologist, perhaps at your nearest mycological club / association / society. These are not the trophy hunter's mushrooms anyway so there's a good chance you'll even make new friends and, at the bare minimum, enjoy your walks in the woods in company. Also important now that predatory wildlife is getting ready for the winter!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tricholoma_portentosum

Addendum: On top of the two similar inedible or even poisonous species in the Tricholoma genus listed by Wikipedia article linked above (Tricholoma virgatum and Tricholoma pardinum), perhaps even more similar looking mushrooms to Tricholoma portentosum that you wouldn't want to accidentally consume even in the tiniest amounts include Tricholoma bresadolanum, Tricholoma terreum, Tricholoma virgatum, Tricholoma sciodes and Tricholoma josserandii. As they tend to grow in similar conditions at the same time of the year, often side by side to the sought-after ones or in mixed species clusters, I suggest positively identifying each and every single specimen of fungi that you collect.

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From today's walk (1/2)...

#Photography #Fungi #Mushrooms #Foraging #FungiFriday #Autumn #Fall #Forest #APSC #Rangefinder #SamsungNX #NX300 #24mm #ManualFocus #VintageLens #MacroLens