Secrets of the Forest Floor: Into the Woods with a Local Mushroom Enthusiast

The air on the trail was damp and still as I followed Crystal Davidson into the forest, her home away from home. I could still taste and feel DEET on my lips after a hasty application of tick repellent moments before. She walked swiftly ahead as she led me deeper into the woods, her head scanning back and forth slowly across the path. A sense of wonder set in as the evening’s first vermillion hues bled into the sky above the dappled green canopy. I cannot disclose the location as per my agreement with Crystal to be interviewed. Even the cover photo for this story has been altered with AI imaging to better conceal our location. Treasure hunters are not known for sharing where X marks the spot. All I can tell you is that we were at a park local to Anderson Township; a place where anyone is free to roam, but unless you know what Crystal knows, the prize we were searching for will be hard to find.

Halfway down a sloping footpath, the crunch of gravel beneath Crystal’s feet suddenly stopped. She took a few steps off the trail and squatted down excitedly in the underbrush. “This is an Amanita!” she explained in a satisfied voice as she uncovered a snowman-looking mushroom beneath decaying leaves. “This is in what was formerly known as section Lepidella, and now most have been reclassified to section Roanokenses.” To make it simpler for me, she added, “Some say they are in the same genus as the Mario mushroom,” to which I replied with a layman’s, “Ahhh.”

Mushroom Modesty

Crystal is too modest to call herself a mycologist. “I consider myself an enthusiast,” she said. But don’t let her fool you. It’s true her credentials in psychology don’t exist on the natural science spectrum and her day job is in the insurance business, but for the last eight or nine years, Crystal has steeped herself in the mycological world, making her marks in the greater mushroom field.

For instance, Crystal serves on the Board of Directors for the Ohio Mushroom Society and runs several Facebook groups (local and international) where hundreds of thousands of members seek to identify, discuss, and sometimes argue about mushrooms. Additionally, some of her fungal photography has made its way into popular field guides and other publications. You may have even seen some of her work pop up on mushroom ID apps, though sometimes lacking credit to her. Also, if you’ve ever taken part in a mushroom foray in Cincinnati, there’s a decent chance your group tour was led by Crystal.

A Self-Educated Journey

It all started back in high school, when Crystal borrowed a copy of The Audubon Guide To Mushrooms from the father of a friend. She took it to the library and, for ten cents per page, copied as many pages as she could. After some studying and note-taking, the homemade guide remained closed for about 20 years. Then about eight years ago, her boyfriend took her on a hunt for morels, which are a popular culinary mushroom. The first year she found zero morels. The next year she found one. “And that’s how I got the fever,” Crystal explained.

Crystal’s extensive knowledge of fungi is entirely self-taught, although her feisty scientific precision in the field would lead you to believe she spent years studying at a university. As we explored various nooks of the forest, she would swiftly identify the different specimens in the area without ever stumbling over their complicated latin-based nomenclature. It sounded like she was casting magic spells as she recited names like, Coprinellus disseminatus (fairy inkcap), Leucoagaricus rubrotinctus (ruby dapperling), Sarcoscypha occidentalis (stalked scarlet cup). I found it interesting that she was more familiar with the Latin names than the common ones. For example, it took her a moment to remember that a Hohenbuehelia petaloides is also known as a shoehorn oyster. She said she’s more comfortable with the latin binomial because it’s more precise.

Magic in the Woods

One of our most memorable finds was a cluster of Hypholoma subviride (little sulphur tufts) nestled within a shallow cavity of dead bark on a disintegrating tree. Crystal pulled a UV light out from her bag. “The cool thing about hypholoma is that they are usually UV reactive,” Crystal explained. With one click of the device, the mushrooms glowed, filling the cozy cavern with a magical green light.

Another highlight was when Crystal found a ghost pipe, which is actually not a fungus, but a plant. It’s one of the few plants that don’t contain any chlorophyll, so it doesn’t get any energy from the sun. Instead, it feeds off fungi on the forest floor. Crystal said some people use it in tinctures for pain relief. A quick Google search reveals that it contains salicylic acid, a metabolite of aspirin. But be careful, the ghost pipe also contains Grayanotoxin, a neurotoxin that could affect your heart.

Naturally, this encounter sparked my curiosity about “magic mushrooms” — the deliriant version of the Mario mushroom Crystal talked about earlier. “Amanita muscaria,” Crystal said. She explained that the variant in our area is likely to be more orange than red and also pointed out that she does not personally experiment with intoxicating mushrooms. She said there’s an unfortunate stereotype about mushroom hunters that they go out into the woods to look for drugs, which is certainly not the case for Crystal. For her, it’s all about science and the hunt. “It’s the greatest game of hunt and seek,” Crystal said.

X Marks the Spot

Our hunt would eventually lead us to Crystal’s top secret location where we finally found what we were looking for; our first chanterelle. Chanterelles are highly sought after culinary mushrooms. I’ve seen the retail value of chanterelles range from $30 to $200 per pound. They are known for their buttery apricot-like aroma and hearty nature which makes preparation simple. To me, it looked like a flower petal or an aged leaf lying on the ground, but after Crystal pointed one out to me, they seemed to pop up from the ground all around us. I could see why Crystal wanted to keep her location private. There was perhaps hundreds of dollars worth of mushrooms right at our feet.

Crystal’s number one tip for picking chanterelles is to squeeze the stem. If the stem is soft, the worms already got to them. You want to find the one’s with fresh hard stems. We didn’t want to be too greedy, so we picked just enough to fill the bottom of a paper lunch bag, then moved on.

Discovery

At one point, Crystal let out a yell. “Wow! Look at the stipe on that.” She threw her bag down and dropped to her knees. “When people ask what my favorite mushroom is, I tell them it’s the one I found today that I’ve never seen before.” Crystal tore into her bag, removing various tools. One was a magnifying glass with a light attached to it. She had to lay on the ground to use it.

To be honest, the mushroom didn’t look all that impressive to me. It was small with a dull brown color, but it certainly made Crystal happy. After she took pictures and noted something, she put it in a container to send off to a friend who does DNA analysis. When I noticed she handled the mystery mushroom without gloves, I asked her why she wasn’t concerned, and that is how our conversation about mycophobia began.

Stigma

“A lot of people fear mushrooms, but the vast majority of mushrooms are non-toxic,” Crystal said. She estimated maybe 4% are actually deadly. “And even with the most toxic ones, as long as you don’t ingest them, they can’t poison you. You can touch a toxic mushroom, you can rub it on your face, stick your nose in it, and it’s never going to hurt you unless you actually swallow it.”

In fact, tasting a mushroom then spitting it out, is a technique often used to help make identifications. Crystal does encourage good judgement when doing this. Slimy mushrooms could indicate a visit from a slug, which are known to carry salmonella. Also, she wouldn’t recommend tasting any mushroom found in a dog park or other unsanitary environments.

A Shocking Demonstration

A few minutes later, Crystal reached down and plucked a rather modest looking white mushroom from the ground. “This is probably the deadliest mushroom that grows in our area. It’s known as the destroying angel, Amanita bisporigera.” She held the deadly mushroom up between us and looked at it reverently. I took a quick picture of the mushroom, totally unprepared for what would happen next.

“Deadliest mushroom in our area,” Crystal repeated as a reminder. Then she put the destroying angel (also known as the angel of death) to her mouth and took a bite. I was able to take one more picture before I realized what she had done. After that, I froze, intimidated by the danger of the moment. I watched as her eyes fixated downward in contemplation and her jaw moved slowly, as if she were studying and/or savoring the taste of the deadly fruit. Then she spit three times and carried on in conversation like nothing happened. Still in shock and still not taking any pictures, I realized in the juxtaposition of her composure and my rising anxiety that Crystal was right — mycophobia is real. She had made her point.

Other Dangers

There are, however; other dangers and risks to consider while exploring the deep woods, namely ticks. Last year, after a hunt in the woods, Crystal went home and noticed what looked like pepper sprinkled all over her ankles. After a closer examination, she discovered that they were tick nymphs, 72 of them. Crystal determined that she must have stepped on a tick’s nest. At first, everything seemed to be okay, and it had appeared that the tick attack had been harmless. But then a few months later, Crystal experienced random facial swelling around her mouth, cheeks, and throat. After some testing, doctors diagnosed Crystal with Alpha gal Syndrome (AGS), a condition associated with tick bites that causes humans to develop an allergic reaction to a specific protein in red meat. Doctors are observing a rapid rise in AGS, and it was covered very recently on the national news.

Crystal has obviously taken measures to better protect herself from ticks and wanted to share her knowledge: “The best thing is to treat your clothing and shoes with permethrin, which lasts for several washes. People should be aware that it is highly toxic to cats until it dries, so it must be applied away from cats. They also make some pretreated clothing now, and I have also used Lymeez Tick Gators. DEET is best for any exposed skin. Tucking pants into socks and shirts into pants, and wearing light colors to make ticks more visible also helps a lot.”

Resilience

Crystal mentioned AGS won’t slow her down. “I’ve just kind of accepted that I am likely to get bitten again, which could prolong or worsen my condition. The woods are where I revitalize and find my connection with the Earth, so I need to go there sometimes. And the mushrooms give me something to focus on to take my mind away from everything else for a while. I, and many others, would say that mushroom hunting saved my life. I am not sure if it’s the combination of the exercise and fresh air and getting away from the noise of other people, or maybe something more mysterious, perhaps even magical.”

After we emerged from the woods, I expressed my gratitude to Crystal for the intimate tour of her mystical world. In a way, it felt like she had given me a room-by-room tour of her home. As a parting gift, Crystal presented me with the bag of chanterelles we gathered. Once back home as the aroma of the wild mushrooms wafted from a sizzling cast iron skillet, I thought about how important people like Crystal are.

For those of us feeling stuck in the matrix, it’s reassuring to know people like her are out foraging beyond the regular programming, laboring to bring us back knowledge, solve mysteries, and sometimes discover new ones. But most importantly, I think they give us hope that their curiosities may one day inspire us to believe that there is still a little bit of magic left to be discovered, even in places as close as our own backyard.

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Crystal wanted you to know that the first annual Ohio Mushroom Festival will take place down in Garrettsville, Ohio, September 22-24. There will be music, speakers, herbalists, and you’ll even see Crystal there volunteering as a foray guide, leading groups on mushroom hunts. Also, consider joining Crystal’s most local Facebook group, Ohio Mushroom Enthusiasts.

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