I think I've mentioned before that the forest wildflowers are scarce at this time of year due to the shade, but that the mushrooms and other fungi are quite abundant. Today the Cumberland Mycological Society had a "Mushroom Foray" at Big South Fork, not far from the visitor center, and I got to go check it out. I actually saw several mushrooms myself, just walking along the shortcut through the woods to the picnic shelter where they were setting up*. They were just returning from their hike with armloads of specimens, and spreading them out on picnic tables to identify as many species as possible. There were some bigger piles of the tastier edibles! I hung out for quite a while chatting and helping to pick out which types looked similar, as those more knowledgeable were beginning to fill out index cards for the ones which were definitely identified. When I finally headed back to the VC, they were still working away, so some of my coworkers headed over to see for themselves, and I returned to the front desk.
*I realize that sentence is grammatically ambiguous, but I find the image amusing.
This is one of several that I saw while walking over. I've seen these before, and they always seem to have been chewed on!
This one is translucent yellow.
The rest of these are from the pavilion. The hikers apparently went off-trail to get as many specimens as possible. Considering how many I've seen just along the trails, it's no wonder they found so many!
That reddish blog just above the center looks like used chewing gum, but is actually a type of slime mold!
That's another fungus being used as a dish to hole the rest...
Oh, I forgot - walking back I spotted this bright red one coming right out of the trail. I don't know how I missed it the first time through!
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