During this summer I go to the woods at least once a week. I also try to take pictures of every kind of flower and mushroom that I find. This way I can build a collection showing how nature changes with time.
It is amazing how much more you start to see when you walk around with intention to take pictures of interesting things. This weekend I went to part of the forest I have not visited in decades. Got many new mushroom types to show, but that's for another post. On my way back I found a boar's diner. Such places are actually pretty common (and despite that, I've only seen a boar once, more specifically its hind part as it was evacuating after it saw me) but this one was quite vast. This is where I found something I've never seen before:
No, it's not a boar's poop :o) It is a mushroom.
Firm like a potato and heavy for its size. Pleasant fungal smell. Color from pale yellow (young?) through reddish to chestnut brown (mature?). My first thought: *a truffle*. So I started to look around for more. I always thought truffles grow deep underground so you have to dig to spot them, but these were clearly visible once I knew they were there... maybe because whole area was well plowed by the boars?
This is how it typically looked:
Just shove cover aside and here they are:
I picked up plenty, cut one on the spot to see if it's not grubby (I'm not sure any worms eat truffles but snails certainly were interested in them):
It was getting dark so I had to leave, but I've marked the area on Google Maps in order to come back later. Just for the record - the place is a mix of mostly spruces and hornbeams, slightly more damp than other parts of the forest.
So... after I got back home I tried to find what mushroom is it. Turns out it could be one of more than 20 species of subterranean fungi (I had no idea there are that many in Poland). Tubers (the actual truffles) were ruled out first, then elaphomyces ("deer truffles"), rhizopogons and couple others. I was eliminating choices based on pictures I found on the Internet. I ended up with one: melanogaster variegatus. I wasn't sure though. On first possible opportunity I went to certified mushroom expert (one can go with mushrooms to Sanepid - a state institution similar to American FDA - to have them tested), and then to second one - this mystery was too much for them :o)
**I decided I'm not going to eat these mushrooms after all.**
When I was taking additional pictures for this article I cut a lot more specimens. It seems like I might have been too quick in ruling out some choices. Some mushrooms, those that felt a bit softer than others, when cut showed light interior, not more common brown (and certainly not blackish expected from melanogasters):
I had to revise my identification: rhizopogon obtextus.
To complete the data here are some magnified pictures of darker pericarps:
 
and the lighter ones:
 
Sadly I don't have a way to magnify enough to show spores.
### What do you think it is: melanogaster variegatus, rhizopogon obtextus or something else altogether? ###
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