Alaskan Mushrooms Views
Harriette Parker is an Alaskan naturalist and authority on wild mushrooms of the north. Parkero’s guidebook opens with tips on how to use her book, tools and supplies needed for hunting mushrooms in the wild, making sporeprints, useful advice on mushroom collecting safety, and protecting wild mushrooms as a natural resource.
As to Alaskan Leccinum; As you probably know Leccinum have mycorrhizal associates and the types of trees under which they grow are often important for identification. Many understory shrubs and small ‘trees’ such as the dwarf willow present in tundra are also capable of hosting mycorrhizal fungi, so they probably also need to be considered in the description of the host/ecological associations for Leccinum. Being so close to the land bridge that once connected Asia and North America, I would be willing to bet that many of your mushrooms probably came from Asia. Your local mushroom experts would have a much better handle on your species than I. Here is a bit more about the status of toxic Leccinum in the lower 48.
If you go back a few comments to one from Jeff, you will see that I have no knowledge of or expertise in Alaskan Mushrooms. There is considerable variation between collections from areas which are only fifty miles or less apart. I can only offer opinions about Northeastern Mushrooms, and then, perhaps not so well.
Southeastern Alaska's old growth forests are home to a class of mushrooms called bracket fungi or conks. Found on Alaskan conifers such as Sitka spruce and western hemlocks, these fungi typically grow on still-standing dead trees and decaying logs. Conks grow in a flat, shelf-like fashion in fan or oblong shapes with unique banded caps that form a rippling or bubbled surface. Undisturbed, the fungi can live for decades and develop beautiful multi-colored annual growth rings.
Alaskan Mushrooms Images
