LBMs

Bob T and I wandered out the Bear Valley Trail In Point Reyes this morning. There was a light drizzle so we decided to leave our cameras in the car, thinking there wouldn't be much to photograph anyway. Of course we were proved wrong twenty minutes later as we came upon these beautiful mushrooms. We continued on our hike, passing the mushrooms again on the way back. "They'll still be here next week", we rationalized. By the time we got back to the car it had stopped raining. Now our creative conscience began to plague us, so we trudged back to the mushrooms, this time with cameras in hand! And you are the beneficiaries of our travail!

 

After unsuccessfully searching through all my guide books, I E-mailed Emma K., the head of my Mycological Research Advisory Group for assistance. Being Ukrainian, Emma has been on a first-name basis with mushrooms since she was two years old and, astonishingly, is still alive. Anyway, she responded post-haste and wrote "Those are not edible mushrooms, they are called LBMs (little brown mushrooms). Some call them LYMs or LWMs (yellow or white). They are similar to honey mushrooms which are edible, but those have little hairs on the top and much more brown/purple coloring". Being of a gullible nature, I am taking Emma's words for gospel, though somewhere, in the depth of my brain (ha!) I suspect that the wool is being pulled over my eyes.

 

By the way, I hope that, after all the above ranting, you like the picture. Which is what it's all about!