A variety of mushrooms can be found in the Rocky Mountains. “Mushrooms of the Rocky Mountain Region” by Vera Evenson outlines over 220 species of mushrooms that can be found in Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming. The late summer months of 2021 proved to bring forth a bountiful amount of mushrooms growing throughout Gilpin County, Colo.
Several distinctive toadstools featuring bright red caps scattered with pale warts could be found growing among the woodlands in the first week of August. The fly agaric (Amanita muscaria) is a red-capped, white-spotted mushroom that can be found July through September. This mushroom has hallucinogenic properties and is highly toxic when consumed.
The bolete (Boletus edulis) is a large mushroom with a brown cap and a bulky stalk that can be found July through September growing at high elevations underneath conifer and spruce trees. Bolete mushrooms make for a good forage find because they are considered to be edible. This mushroom was also found plentifully growing throughout August.
Another mushroom that was found growing in the forests of Gilpin County, Colo. was the sickener (Russula emetica). This is a medium-sized, brightly colored mushroom with a red cap and a white stalk that can be found in the summer and fall months growing among conifer trees and mosses. As suggested by its name, the sickener is a poisonous mushroom.
This post is great for its topic and presentation, but more importantly I think it applies new media strategy very effectively. The preview of this blog with the “read more” button is good in that just the act of clicking to see more of your article is going to engage people in reading the entire thing. All of your blocks of text are short and to the point, and spaced out with pretty and large picture which encourages scrolling and keeps the post from looking cluttered.
If the photos are taken by you, citing this somewhere would be great for your perceived credibility, it would make it seem like you have close experience with the subject and make people want to listen to you more. I also think that more tags could be added to make searching for this article easier, there are scientific, environmental, and possibly even fantastical elements of this post that people in a search bar could be interested in discovering.
Emma – This is a very fascinating looking blog with different pictures of Colorado Mushrooms! Very brief, straight to the point, and high quality pictures. There really isn’t much for me to nitpick on. Did you take these pictures? If you didn’t, I suggest siting the webpages where they came from. Great site!
Hey Emma,
This is absolutely fantastic, and really makes me wonder if I could make my layout more… Aesthetically pleasing. Because I find the name ‘Forest Wonderland’ coupled with the search capabilities and the option to read more makes going through the blog an absolute breeze! I honestly wish I hadn’t used the platform I used for my blog, and instead tried to make something distinctly unique like this, because it’s absolutely appealing to my eyes!
The use of imagery and descriptions makes it easy to tell which mushroom is which- I also didn’t know that mushrooms could be so pretty (Never been much of a nature person beyond the sea myself, and even then my know-how is super limited!). I didn’t even know that there were hallucinogenic mushrooms out in Colorado either!
I wonder if there are any videos portraying someone gathering safe-eating mushrooms out there, or someone identifying them on hand. That could be an interesting addition. Nice job with the blog post, and I can’t wait to see more of them!
Emma,
Beautiful images! I like the piece that you covered, but I feel as this blog post is missing some information/more content. To me, the images take a majority of the content which in some cases can be good, but to me this piece needs more information on the mushrooms themselves. As well, with the content of your blog, will you be providing all different organisms that can be found throughout Colorado or just in the forest in general?
Hello Emma!
This blog post is both impressive and engaging. I love how you tied in the relevancy with Colorado. The writing is informative without being boring and ties well with the pictures. Great job adding captions when appropriate and following proper AP style.
The visuals really enhanced the learning experience I had, especially when comparing size. This is overall a great blog that is interesting.
Good job with your post-Emma! If there’s is one thing I would recommend it would be describing the impact that these mushrooms have on the environment in Colorado.
Excellent post, Emma! Fungus is a topic that has fascinated me for a while, and your post definitely encouraged me to learn more about the subject. It’s clear from your post that this is a topic you’re passionate about, it’s something that certainly gets across to the reader. The photos look to be high quality and make the post as a whole very visually appealing, and they look to be of some beautiful mushrooms. The information you provided about the species made this educational as well and took it a step beyond just a common appreciation post.
The photo descriptions were nice, and although the reader can assume you took the photos yourself, it might make it more clear to add your own credit into the descriptions, or at least in one of them. Also, I can’t find any bio or about page for the blog. Adding one could help your reader get to know you a little better, and help them understand what this blog’s content will be about beyond the first post.
Overall, I was very impressed with this post and can’t wait to see what comes next! (Also, I love the title you chose.)
Emma,
Your blog caught my eye from the start as I am a HUGE Alice in Wonderland fan. Your images are remarkable and I think they had so much to your blog. I greatly enjoyed reading your work and the imagery did a great job in adding to your content. The photo on your headline was a great artistic choice. I also really enjoyed that once you click ‘read more’ that only then the article and accompanying images are shown to the reader.