Here are a couple habitat shots and discussion.
Habitat 1 along the banks of a small streem.
Habitat 2. In grassy area upland from stream, but still in 100 year flood plane.
The most interesting thing for me is the surroundings photos, along a creek. Never have been that way, but MJ's page says woodchips, just like out there. It almost looks wild, certainly more wild than many Bay Area spots.
The place is wild. I think it is second growth along most of the stream. There are elms (standing dead and live) some kind of weed tree that has leaves that remind me of poison-ivy (I call it cotton wood, but I don't think I'm correct). There are also some really big sycamores. The place was used for industry but it has been abandoned for a really long time judging from the discarded scraps of machinery that you have to be careful not to trip over. The place has been abandoned long enough to be considered wild. These are wild Psilocybe caerulipes, and this is their natural habitat.
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it's certainly possible somebody dumped woodchips out there many years ago
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These are growing from a layer of mud and sticks deposited by the flood from Hurricane Ivan winter before last.
They certainly are prolific. This 'patch' covers almost half a mile along a stream and a short ways up a small feeder stream. The highest density of mushrooms is near the confluence of the two streams.
Here is a shot of the main stream. Note the tall weeds on the right side of the stream. They are Japanese Knot-weed (Polygonum cuspidatum), an invasive species that P. caerulipes has taken a liking to.
I have found at least 4 distinct blue-foot habitats in this area.
The first and least impressive is a grassy field about 70 yards upland from the steam. I imagine they are growing from buried wood, but I didn't see any evidence for this. Perhaps they have adapted to eating dead grass? The mushrooms in this area are almost white and very small with long thin stems and almost imperceptible partial veils. They remind me very much of P. foenisecii, but are given away by the smell and very mild bluing.
(sorry for the repost, I didn't take new pictures of this spot today)
The second habitat is under the Japanese Knot Weed, along the banks of the steam. These large plants make bamboo like stalks which die off every winter and reform in the spring. I observed mushrooms fruiting from the dead stalks mixed with twigs leaves and sand, under the standing live plants which provide shade. Mushrooms under the Japanese knot weed ranged from small to large, and grew singly to in large groups, but usually not more than three or four in a cluster.
The third habitat is where the mushrooms are the thickest. It is literally very difficult to walk through these spots without stepping on them. They grow singly and in large clusters from sand mixed with buried wood, under a pretty thick canopy of elm, buckeye, and Box Elder (thanks lIXII, in flat areas about 2-3 feet above the stream bed. Wild rose bushes also grow in these areas and the shrooms can sometimes be found under them. The mycelium in the largest spot like this is continuous for an area about 20 ft by 200 feet.
The final habitat is directly from rotten peaces of wood, on the ground and in large debris piles left by the flood. I even found one small specimen growing from a log.
