On Sunday June 28, 31 AMC members - including lots of new members who had never forayed before - met in the Cataloochee national forest for the first summer foray of the year. We got started around 10 AM, and separated into 4 groups in order to record our finds for the Forest Service (using GPS units provided by the local rangers). We forayed for a little under 2 hours in 4 different areas: the Horse Camp Trail, the Rough Fork Trail, the Caldwell Creek Trail and the woods around the Old Schoolhouse. 

We enjoyed lunch by the stream while Charlotte Caplan and Steve Peek labored over fungi identification (thanks, you guys!!).
Despite the lack of rain in the previous week in Cataloochee, we found over 70 different species of mushrooms, of which we were able to identify 49 with some confidence.  There were lots of Russulas and Hygrocybes, but the chanterelles were just beginning to appear, so no one went home with a boatload of them, unfortunately.

We also found some rare mushrooms – at least for us, since they don’t appear in our club foray lists for the past 5 years:

• Amanita brunnescens var. pallida  (we collected the common brown form as well, and the similarity in everything but color was unmistakable)
• Amanita spissa (= excelsa)
• Clitocybe ectypoides (only one rather old specimen, but last week it was everywhere!)
• Gyroporus purpurinus
• Pluteus flavofulgineus