AGARICALES of NEELY'S BEND
Local sources of Oyster mushroom are plentiful in the basin of Middle Tennessee. The gilled mushroom Pleurotus ostreatus prefers fallen trees and decaying logs and can produce a bounty after a good rain.
Oyster mushroom (In square format), 2022. Digital Photograph.
These edible mushrooms grow in groups, bracketed on the surface of decaying wood. Cool to the touch and with a subtle aroma of anise or fennel, they are easy additions to many dishes and are hardy so they hold up well in soups or roasted in the oven in addition to a good sauté with garlic and onions.
With caution and care to identify, these mushrooms are easy to spot and can be foraged for free in many local wooded areas.
Oyster Manifold I, 2022. Digital Photograph.
Not only are they good to eat, they are also beautiful as are many mushrooms, even though they are a rather dull color of beige. The striations of the gills retain great creases of shadow that give interesting detail next to the smooth and uniform shapes of the cap on top. The repeated forms are overlapping but differing in size, bringing variation and relations of scale that are aesthetically pleasing, and a common attribute in both fungi and plants.
The white stalks are vibrant and contrast well with a dark background. These photographs are a great exhibition for the temporary beauty that organic forms take, that fleeting quality of flawless beauty that is often captured by artists when they render things such as youthful faces or bowls of ripened fruit.
Oyster mushroom Pair, Oyster mushroom Gills, Oyster mushroom Stalk, Oyster mushroom under Daylight, Oyster Mushroom Manifold II, 2022. Digital Photographs.
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