It wasn’t long after the beginning of 2024 before I struck out on a hike out to the bog I had found out in Gothe State Forest during the fall. I didn’t have much luck spotting any interesting birds that afternoon, but it was a good day for mushrooms. We’d had a bunch of rain on the first and the second and the weather had been warm, so conditions were pretty good for ‘shrooms and other fungi. Across the trail from the bog is a small opening in the woods and several downed trees. The area is also surrounded by living trees, too, so there’s plenty of places for mushrooms to grow. I found a bunch of onion stalk parasols, some turkey tails, and quite a few of these gilled boletes (Phylloporus pelletieri). Interestingly, boletes tend to be summer and fall mushrooms, but if the conditions are good, then they can grow at any time. They’re a bit different from the others in that they usually grow on the roots of living oaks. They have a symbiotic relationship with the trees, and they share nutrients, which benefits both. I liked the way these were growing up through the leaf litter as if the tree root wasn’t even there.