Moss

The ones that hide in moss

For many mycorrhizal mushrooms (whose substrate is soil and tree roots), a layer of moss is the perfect "blanket" that protects their young fruiting bodies from drying out and from heat.

1. Chanterelles (Cantharellus): Often grow in the green moss of conifer forests. That's the nicest place to pick them — the mushrooms stay perfectly clean, without a smear of soil.

2. Bay bolete (Imleria badia): This much-loved pored mushroom most often grows right in cushions of green moss under pines (often attached to the base of old, moss-covered stumps).

3. Xerocomus (Xerocomus): Its Ukrainian name, "mokhovyk" ("moss-dweller"), gives away its favorite hiding place.

True "bog" moss-lovers

There is a group of mushrooms that grow only in sphagnum (white) mosses in peat bogs. They evolved together with this peculiar, very acidic and wet substrate:

1. Ghost bolete (Leccinum holopus): A mushroom with an almost white cap that grows straight out of deep, waterlogged sphagnum under dwarf birches.

2. Galerina sphagnorum: A small poisonous mushroom that grows only on living sphagnum moss.

3. Hintapink (Russula paludosa): A large brittlegill with a bright red cap that grows in boggy, mossy patches of pine forests.

When you look for mushrooms in moss, M.Ya. Zerova advises taking care not to tear the moss out in clumps — it's better to cut the mushroom neatly with a knife and leave the green cushion intact so the mycelium doesn't dry out.