Personal Genius
Every spring I wander into a riparian landscape near Denver, CO, usually joined by my grown children and their various friends and partners, searching for the elusive blond morels (Morchella esculentoides) that fruit in this area. Morel season is brief and dependent on spring rains, which don't happen regularly in this part of the world. So when the showers finally do arrive you need to drop everything and just go. It's all about the thrill of the hunt, the excitement of discovery, and the tastiness of these weird-looking Ascomycetes. The search always takes a long time, but once you hear the first, "I found one!" the rest are discovered en masse. I'm not a mycologist, but my guess is that the spread of each underground fungal organism, which is called its mycelium, sends up mushrooms simultaneously, which means you tend to find them in batches. Mycelium consists of microscopic threads called hyphae that join and tangle together to create a fibrous web. Mushrooms...