When strolling through a woodland bog, my expectations are geared toward a new discovery. It seems that a few local peat bogs have always come up with something unusual in the realm of mushrooms. The sandy lowland woods within the White Oak Mountain range have scattered beds of sphagnum moss (peat moss) that are characteristic of a true pocosin. When I reached to feel and inspect a curious fungal formation, my touch of a gelatinous mass took me by surprise.
What a strange fungus! I later learned that I had found a Jelly Club Mushroom. In the study of biodiversity this species drifts far from an amateur's concept of a mushroom. The dark green head and yellowish stalk soon take on a rubbery appearance.
(See also other mushrooms.)
Copyright © 2002 William T. Hathaway.