I went on a hike out on the North Douglas trail called the Rainforest trail and came across a really peculiar fungus on a tree. I had to take a picture of it, because I love weird things in the natural world. I was not exactly sure what it was, even when I was researching it. I got it narrowed down to the Orange Spot Jelly and the Witch's butter, and ultimately decided on the Jelly Spot. I decided this because when I was doing my research, I found a source Bud Logan and a few others that said the Orange Jelly Spot grows mostly on conifers whereas Witch's Butter grows on deciduous trees (Bud Logan). Although, it makes it really confusing, because in most of the sources, they treat both fungi as the same. So for sake of simplicity, I'll refer to them as the same since the main difference is where they grow. One source from Austin Collins talks about how there are people who do eat the mushroom, but that there is not a whole lot of flavor or nutritional value. Mostly, people eat them because they think they help prevent and treat lung ailments (Austin Collins, 2020). I think that there aren't a lot of people who like to eat this mushroom/fungus, but mushroom foraging in Southeast Alaska is a really important part of culture and sense of place, bringing people closer to their land and the nature around them. I began finding and becoming more interested in mushrooms when I got to Alaska, and it continues to become a larger part of my connection to Alaska.

Austin Collins. "Dacrymyces palmatus: The Orange Jelly Fungus." Healing Mushrooms. 2020. https://healing-mushrooms.net/dacrymyces-palmatus

Bud Logan. "Orange Jelly Fungus." gohiking.ca. https://gohiking.ca/orange-jelly-fungus/

Posted on October 29, 2022 01:05 AM by gcadenhead