Wild Mushrooms

[hikerduane]

My neighbor got me to tag along for a bit late Sunday looking for mushrooms, we found five morels close to home. Around 4000' in elev.

[vpoulin]

Great photo - check out page 37 of Sierra Nevada Natural History - "Giant Lentinus", or Lentinus ponderosus also known as Ponderous lentinus. Described well by David Arora, "Mushrooms Demystified" on page 143. We found two on our trip, but did not eat them because we left our field guides behind to save pack weight (a mistake). According to Arora, this is an edible and choice wild mushroom, but requires some cooking to make it tender. The Japanese use it as a substitute for their favored matsutake mushroom or Pine Mushroom. That one is chewy as well and delicious. Nice find.