We all know that what we see above the ground is simply one part of the mushroom right? It’s the fruiting body and contains the spores. The largest part of the mushroom is actually the mycelium which is usually unseen because it’s underground. It’s the part that is with us year round and the part that creates and sends out the fruiting bodies. And just for reference the plural of mycelium is mycelia. People sometimes use those words interchangeably.
This amazing full monty boletus mirabilis gives us a glimpse of how that works by showing the mycelium. So cool!! It’s not often one gets the chance to see the mycelium out of it’s growing substrate – be it the soil or a tree. We feel so lucky. Take a look yourself and you can see the full mushroom of this brown velvet beauty.
Found in Roberts Creek, Sunshine Coast, BC Canada.
McDowell did a double take when she saw this healthy boletus growing from visible mycelium.
Sweet.
And yes, it was perfect. No bugs.
Simply beautiful. Simply nature.
About The Brown Velvet (Boletus mirabilis)
Boletus mirabilis, commonly known as the admirable bolete, the bragger’s bolete, and the velvet top, is an edible species of fungus in the Boletaceae mushroom family. The fruit body has several characteristics with which it may be identified: a dark reddish-brown cap; yellow to greenish-yellow pores on the undersurface of the cap; and a reddish-brown stem with long narrow reticulations. Boletus mirabilis is found in coniferous forests along the Pacific Coast of North America, and in Asia.
More information: Boletus mirabilis: Wikipedia