After the Rains...

Welcome to After the Rains, a blog devoted to mushrooming in the San Francisco Bay Area and beyond. I'd like to use this space to share thoughts on mycology, foraging, mushroom cookery, and mushroom lore in general. Let me say right up front that I am a passionate amateur, not a mycologist. However, I strongly agree with the experts, who always recommend against the collecting and eating of wild mushrooms by non-experts. No images or other information on this blog should be used to positively identify fungi, either edible or poisonous. Many edible species have deadly or debilitating look-alikes, so please do not collect or eat wild mushrooms without having them identified by an expert. That said, I do believe that ignorance is the most dangerous thing in the woods, or elsewhere. Hopefully, this blog can be a touchstone for further learning and exploration.

It's a couple of weeks after the first rains of 2007, and the fungi are beginning to assert themselves after the long, dry summer. First out of the gate, as always, is the sulfur shelf (Laetiporus sulphureus – or L.gilbertsonii). The shelves came out a few weeks earlier than usual this year, and speculation was rife that global warming was the cause. Maybe, but it's been an unusual year all around. The acorn crop, for example, is the biggest I've seen in 15 years; the buckeye crop, too. This on the heels of a very dry winter. We'll have to consult the Old Farmer's Almanack (or maybe Al Gore) for the answer. Below is a short item I wrote on sulfur shelves for the Claremont Canyon Conservancy newsletter last fall:

The Sulfur Shelf, First Mushroom of the Season

The sulfur shelf is one of the most conspicuous mushrooms found in the East Bay Hills. Sulfur shelves begin to sprout from stumps and on older, weakened or burned trees, particularly eucalyptus, in early October before the fall rains have come. Typically, the mushrooms begin as small efflorescences, like bright yellow marshmallows. Given time, they may grow into huge multi-tiered clusters weighing twenty pounds or more.

Sulfur shelves (Laetiporus sulphureus – or L.gilbertsonii if they grow on eucalyptus or oak) are polypores, shelf-like fungi that have small pores on their undersides, rather than gills. Their most conspicuous feature is their bright yellow color (sometimes banded with orange); hence the name. This fungus takes advantage of the moisture and sugars from dead and dying trees, which is why they flourish when everything else is dry. Like many other fungi, they provide an invaluable service by helping to decompose wood, returning its valuable nutrients to the soil.


Sulfur shelves are also called “chicken of the woods” and considered edible and delectable by some mushroom enthusiasts. They are occasionally known cause gastric distress, however; particularly those growing on eucalyptus. Since many eucalyptus stumps in the region have been treated with herbicides, sulfur shelves from suspect areas should definitely be avoided. There are also some poisonous fungi (such as the Jack-o-lantern mushroom) that may resemble sulfur shelves to the uninitiated.

Last fall, several big, black stinkbugs took up residence on a large sulfur shelf growing on a stump near my house. They lived there happily for two months, eating the succulent fungus and lolling in the sun, in a luxurious beetle heaven. It reminded me of a story in Steinbeck’s Cannery Row, where Doc wonders if stink bugs are praying when they stick their hind ends in the air (as they often do). Now I think I know. They are praying, for a big, beautiful sulfur shelf to call home.