Excerpts from Jim Conrad's
Naturalist Newsletter

from the August 3, 2007 Newsletter issued from Sierra Gorda Biosphere Reserve, QUERÉTARO, MÉXICO
OLD MAN OF THE WOODS
Last weekend in the moist, magnolia-populated little cove I visited, all alone in the middle of a trail there was an Old Man of The Woods, whom you can admire below:

Old Man of The Woods, STROBILOMYCES cf. CONFUSUS

If you have trouble making sense of that photo, it's a mushroom with a black, shaggy cap, STROBILOMYCES cf. CONFUSUS. The "cf." in the name stands for "confirm," in recognition of the fact that two look-alike species exist and I'm just guessing that this is the one with the more southerly distribution, one extending into Costa Rica.

I assume that the mushroom's name is a comment on its cap's shagginess, as well as its tendency to be found alone, all dark and broody-looking, in such isolated places as that shadowy little cove. Books say that the species is edible, but very bland, and not making a pretty dish, so few people bother to pick it.