7.16.26 Oak Woods Cemetery, Chicago, IL

Today, the smoke from wildfires ravaging Canadian forests reached Chicago, covering the city in a dystopian haze. It smelled horrible, and we had to spend little time outside and war masks for our own health. Always remember not to be active and outside in this weather, and that these fires are a natural phenomenon unaturally hyperdrived by global warming/

Roll-rim mushrooms, likely Brown Roll-rims

Fallen specimen. Roll-rims are ectomycorrhizal with a wide variety of hardwoods and conifers. Essentially, they trade nutrients with plant roots. The fungi share minerals, phosphorus, nitrogen, and water that requires fungal skill of navigating through soil, while plants share organic carbon compounds they get from photosynthesizing molecules from air. That is the mycorrhizal part. The ecto part is derived from latin or ancient greek (I really never know) for outside, and refers to the fact they form tissues around plant roots and don't penetrate the cells, unlike other mycorrhizal fungi

Gill detail. Despite having gills, Roll-rims are closely related to boletes, which have pores but otherwise look very similar. Roll-rims and boletes are also very similar ecologically, as they are both ectomycorrhizal.

So many Roll-rims! The fruiting bodies are toxic in two ways, as they contain two toxic compounds. One is antibiotic, deters insect feeding, causes gastrointestinal distress (icky poo-poo tummy) in humans, and makes the mushrooms stain brown when touched. The brown staining is very important for foragers to avoid the second toxicity. They also cause an autoimmune attack on red blood cells, and the risk of this happening builds up with time. The toxin that causes the betrayal of your immune cells is unknown, so there is no cure. Because of this, they are considered deadly toxic