The Good Life in Aggtelek National Park Part 46: First Outing with the Mushroom Course

This weekend we got into the nitty-gritty of the mushrooming course. On Saturday we started the slide shows familiarizing us with a total of 110 mushrooms over 4 weeks. We desperately tried to write down the 20-odd characteristics for each mushroom that will help us differentiate the edible from the their often near-lookalike compatriots. I had pre-made a chart to fill in, but it was still desperate work. On Sunday we had our first mushroom hunting outing. I cannot go with the class next week because of a conference for the national park, so I went with the Miskolc Mushroom Association instead. The association also happens to be a partner of Aggtelek National Park.The tour was led by Balazs Darai, with my teacher Béla Szűcs in attendance. The plan was to search for morels, which should be appearing now, however, the cold weather is still keeping a lid on them. So we satisfied ourselves with identifying what we found and enjoying the fresh air. Entering the forest in the hills above Miskolc on the edge of the Bükk, we found a stash of walking sticks members of the club often stack at various places for people that need them on the excursions. Attila had already found a few nice specimens of the scarlet elf cup on his way through Tapolca to the meeting point. He also quickly found a Lingzhi mushroom used extensively in Asian medicine. In total, we found about 23 types of mushrooms, of which 4 will be on the exam and only 1 edible. I found some cute little fluted birds nest mushrooms, some Judas ears, split gills which is unusual for its ability to sense the most optimal time to release its spores and close its gills and protect them until then,  and an oak mazegill on an oak stump. Viki spotted Phellinus (vastagtapló) that Autralian aborigines have used to treat sore throats; tinder fungus that grows on and destroys beech trees, buts soaked, beaten stretched and dried strips are used as tinder by some peoples; and Feri found some colourful Ribizketapló that lives in symbiosis with the spindle shrub (kecskeragó) - meaning that it only lives as long as the shrub lives; Viki also found the one example of a cap mushroom during the excursion, a few conifercone caps that grow on pine cones. I found by experience that if I found a bunch of witch's butter, then it was also most probable that Judas ear was also growing on the dead branch, but no one could confirm this.The number of tapló mushrooms and amount of witch's butter was staggering. These funghi are highly damaging to forests and are impossible to eradicate because their main bodies are in the soil and persist even if you cut out the affected trees. About 3.5 hours later we emerged at Bükkszentlászló

I brought back my handful of Judas ears for a soup. These wood ear mushrooms are often found in Chinese soups. I showed them to Sanyi but he just turned his nose up at them - for Sanyi, if it is not a chanterrelle or cep, it does not merit his attention. But I am still happy to have found some for another free lunch.

Photo gallery
List of Mushrooms found

Photos by Béla Szűcs and Attila Lengyel