NEBRASKAland Magazine is dedicated to outstanding photography and informative writing with an engaging mix of articles and photos highlighting Nebraska’s outdoor activities, parklands, wildlife, history and people.
Issue link: http://mag.outdoornebraska.gov/i/1099174
April 2019 • Nebraskaland 25 24 hours, the spores fall from the drying cap, depositing a color impression on the paper. This can be white or brown, and sometimes yellow or even purple. For those species requiring even fi ner observation, he scrapes spores from the prints using a razor blade and places them on a microscope slide. An added drop of dye illuminates diagnostic micro-structures on the spores' surface, such as ridges, indentations and warts. Using a ruler imbedded in the lens, he measures the spores, which can range from a few thousandths to a few hundredths of an inch in length, depending on species. The spores' shapes, mostly oval to round, are also telling. A recently purchased microscope has taken Brueggemann's ever-increasing skills to a new level. His talents have grown to the point where he recently helped lead a few mushroom identifi cation workshops at Hitchcock Nature Center in Pottawattamie County, Iowa. New Discoveries at Indian Cave In his fi ve years of mushrooming at Indian Cave, Brueggemann has discovered 12 species never before documented in Nebraska. Among these are the ringless honey mushroom, a parasite on hardwood trees; the cinnamon bracket (page 24), a saprophyte on dead hardwoods, favoring hickories; the black staining polypore (page 25), a parasite on oaks whose fl esh turns black when bruised; and the beautiful and delicious golden chanterelle (page 25). The latter has a "fruity aroma, reminiscent of apricots and a mildly peppery taste." At the opposite extreme of palatability he has discovered the highly toxic and appropriately-named destroying angel, a rather nondescript, white toadstool in the genus Amanita whose members cause the majority of deaths from mushroom consumption. Most interestingly, perhaps, Brueggemann also discovered Nebraska's fi rst known truffl e (page 26) at Indian Cave. In the fall of 2017, while raking leaves from a fi rebreak in oak woods, he uncovered a strange orange mushroom from just below the soil surface. "I had never seen anything like it," he said. "The mushroom was roundish, fi rm and had an aroma reminiscent of rotten eggs. I took several photos and documented its habitat." A few months passed before he got around to identifying the mysterious fungi. He thought it might be a truffl e, but was skeptical as his fi eld guides showed no truffl es occurring in our state. Long web searches for similar-looking truffl es and truffl e-like mushrooms also proved fruitless. Baffl ed, he took photos to Dr. Gerard Adams, a forest pathologist at UNL, to see if he could identify the mushroom. Brueggemann documented Nebraska's fi rst known black- staining polypore mushroom at Indian Cave. Its fl esh turns black when bruised or injured. The golden chanterelle is rare at Indian Cave State Park, where it grows in association with oak trees. It is a highly sought-after edible mushroom. PHOTO BY CHANCE BRUEGGEMANN PHOTO BY CHANCE BRUEGGEMANN