In early October my partner mentioned they had seen a solitary mushroom emerging from a wound in an elm tree on our local trail. I was interested, of course, but all the more so because it reminded me of the Muskoka Mystery Mushroom which had I found in similar habitat, but in a primordial stage that made it hard to ID. I immediately headed up there with my camera. I wasn’t going to make the same mistake as I did on the Cain Foray and just rely on my iPhone.

Long story short, it’s a very good candidate for the MMM. The horizontal stem emerging from deep in a wound. The very firm striated stipe. This was a very mature specimen quite dry and so no exudate, but that is not unexpected. Unfortunately I only have my memory to go on as the pictures of the MMM are not good.

With help from the FaceBook Mushroom ID Forum and a look at the Mushroom Expert website it seemed we had found an Elm Oyster (Hypsizygus ulmarius). Mystery solved. Perhaps, but this raised another question for me, because I thought I knew the Elm Oyster Because I grow them. Read more about the questions this raises…