Did you know...?

[Stick in Mud]

...that Carolus Linnaeus, the guy who invented the Latinate taxonomic system that none of us can pronounce, identified/named by himself 12,000 (give or take a few) plants and animals. But when it came to fungi, he was so annoyed by their complexity and variety that he created a species called Chaos fungorum into which he dumped all of the ones he couldn't identify.

So, at least we know we're not alone when we can't quite figure out what that mushroom is growing out of the ground. We're in good company.

The things you learn reading mycology textbooks!

[pikestabber]

Chaos fungorum... That's about 99% of what I find in the woods

I went from being able to ID just morels to learning about a dozen edibles this past year, and now I look forward to learning even more. Very addictive sport, but I can see where his frustration came from. I could live 50 lifetimes and not learn 5% of the fungi out there.