Fresh Mushrooms !

It's another Fungi Friday and I hope it's been a great one for you out there in the fields, forests, woods, as you forage and capture photos of these wonderful gifts of nature, the mushrooms. Although they are fungi and grow in the wild - woods, forests, farmlands, dead woods, tree stumps etc, they serve as food for man, insects and other creatures. While some are edible and contain essential nutrients which are good for the body, some aren't as they are said to contain poisonous properties that can cause harm to the body, So one should be careful with them, luckily I can easily identify which is which.

This partícular mushroom is called Lentinus squarrosulus, a genus of fungi belonging in the family of Polyporaceae, a family of fungi known for their shelf-like structures with pores underneath, instead of gills. Lentinus squarrosulus is one of the edible mushrooms, very sweet and nutritious although not so soft when cooked. Maybe that's why they are locally called Ata ata elo or atakata elo (literally meaning not easily chewable), lol.

Lentinus squarrosulus naturally grows on wood and can be found in many parts of the world. Not only are these mushrooms beneficial to man, they also have other important roles which they play. By growing on dead woods and trees, they help break them down and also contribute to the ecosystem by recycling nutrients.

I visited my sister and needed to get some vegetables from her garden. Just beside the garden some logs of woods were packed and this mushroom were growing there. The woods were already dead and moist due to the constant rain, thus, became a fertile ground for these mushrooms to grow. They will continously grow there as long as the wood is moist and can only stop when the rain ceses.

Seeing the mushrooms, I didn't waste time with foraging the mature ones. I was so happy because I've got me an extra ingredient for the soup I planned to prepare. Oh, how I love eating mushrooms especially when they are used to prepare some of our local soups.

Imagine using this fresh and succulent mushrooms to prepare soup or sauce and then adding other fresh vegetables like ugu (pumpkin leaves), Ukazi (wild spinach), Oha ( African Rosewood vegetable) and Ugboru or Ugbogoru (fluted pumpkin leaf), oh la la! 😅. All things fresh from the garden, what could be tastier, and healthier than it. That's the beauty of having these free gifts of nature. I love nature. Nature is life!