FALL MUSHROOMS

Jack Schmidling Productions, Inc.
18016 Church Road ~ Marengo IL 60152
Phone:815 923 0031 ~ Email:arf@mc.net

Much to our surprise on our morning walk today (Aug 29), we found one of our favorite Fall mushrooms popping out of trees all over our property. The Box Elder mushroom usually does not appear until October around here.

It is more commonly known as the Elm Oyster and it's former Latin name was Pleurotus ulmarius, implying an affinity for elm trees. However, I have never seen one on an elm tree and they are very commonly found on Box Elders so I have taken the liberty of calling it the Box Elder Mushroom. This also avoids the confusion with the oyster mushroom which is another excellent edible.

Their typical habit is to grow out of knot holes or injuries in Box Elder trees. This picture shows a not too unusual clump of them growing out a knot hole but more often, there is just one per knot but frequently several in a single tree.

When first appearing, they are just little pea-sized balls which grow to 5-10 inches in about a week. The ones in the picture are from 2 to 3 inches in diameter. They taste very much like the commercial button mushroom but a bit milder. The flavor does not seem to be affected by the size but the larger they get the more likely it is that they will contain bugs so we pick them as soon as we see them.

---

For the most recent Photos of the Week.. RECENT PHOTOS

HOME PAGE