Now that the ground is mostly dried out, we’re seeing more mushrooms bullying their way to the surface here. Some have surprising, albeit descriptive, common names. For example, look at this tawny-red mushroom. You can see why it’s called a Red-Mouth Bolete (Boletus subvelutipes).
Technically, DNA has revealed that this mushroom is one of about a dozen closely-related mushrooms called collectively Red-Mouths. These Boletes are beautiful to see and nice to touch – they feel like velvet. However, we dare not taste them; they’re poisonous.
Mushrooms in the large Bolete family have no gills; they seem to be smooth under their caps, but that’s where they have minute tubes from which their spores drop. (Brooklin, Maine)