Tuesday morning Margie and I discovered these little mushrooms growing out of a decaying log on the Bear Valley Trail in Point Reyes.
After burying myself in guidebooks without sleep for 48 hours, I emerged with some fascinating information. The little mushrooms were Mycena haematopus, or "blood-foot mushrooms" because, when you cut the stipe a red bloodlike latex oozes out. "haematopus means "blood-foot" in Greek.
Popular legend has it that Perseus, the mythic Greek king and hero, when on a picnic with Andromeda and some of the nobles, plucked and ate a mushroom because he was thirsty. It was a poisonous one, and he started hallucinating, seeing visions of a city all around him. The nobles, who were anxious to curry favor with the king took all of this seriously and founded Mycenae, the capitol city of Agamemnon, upon the spot where the picnic had been. (Mykes means mushroom in Greek.) Coincidentally, Mycenae became a thriving center for illicit drug trade.
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