Found a few weeks ago, always wondered when these came up in my area.
this post was submitted on 20 Jun 2025
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Mycology
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9ft of snow?! I only experienced such deep snow in an urban setting while living in Connecticut for a year. I spent a few years in Oregon but the snow in the area never got so deep while I was there. When I was in the US I was not yet able to identify many fungi as I was mainly obsessed with animals (especially salamanders) back then, so unfortunately I did not really appreciate the diversity of fungi there. Although once in Oregon I did attempt to dye some socks using a wolf lichen (Letharia vulpina) and a pressure cooker. That did not end well.
9ft would usually be accumulative over the course of a winter, it snows for 5 or 6 months in northern BC, but we did get 6ft in 2 days once and that was a shit show. I would give the Letharia dye another try, the last time I did it I don't think I used a mordant but you could use alum or something. I would skip the pressure cooker and just do a hot water bath, then you don't felt your wool socks down into little baby boots.
Would love to... When I was in Oregon this lichen was super abundant. At the moment I am living in Amsterdam (Netherlands), and I see mostly Xanthoria, Evernia, Rhizocarpon, and a few other lichen species that grow on city trees, but they are very small and spotty, nothing compared to the wolf lichen in Oregon. I do miss the Oregon forests with the old growth sequoia redwood trees and all that lichen.