katemacquarrie22

It’s Mushroom Monday, and this week we have one of PEI’s most distinctive (and oddly named) fungi: meet Chicken Lips (Leotia viscosa)! Leotia species are also known as Jelly Babies, because of their squishy texture and superficial resemblance to the British candy of the same name. Despite sharing a name with that sweet treat, Jelly Babies are tasteless, slimy, and not considered edible. Within this group, Chicken Lips are easily identified by their yellow stems and wrinkly green tops – for...

I love PEI’s fall colours. Not only the changing leaves and vibrant fungi, but also late-season flowering plants like Witch Hazel (Hamamelis virginiana). When people ask me about planting native species for pollinators, my thoughts always go immediately to very early and very late flowering plants. Any pollinator worth its salt can making a living from the Island’s landscape in peak summer, but resources are much scarcer in early spring and now, as our native bees, butterflies, moths,...

It’s mushroom Monday, and this week we have the eye-catching, edible, and ecologically-helpful Flame Trumpet (Craterellus ignicolor). No matter how much or how little interest you have in wild mushrooms, you’ve likely heard of Chanterelles. That common name usually applies to fungi in the genus Cantharellus, but there are other, equally edible, members of the Chanterelle family. I’ve posted about two before: Black Trumpet (Craterellus fallax) and Winter Chanterelle (aka Yellowfoot,...