Iodine Bolete

 

Recently in the grounds of the Chateau de Chenonceau I came across a colony of large bolete mushrooms in a little grove of mature oak trees. When I first encountered them it was raining and their caps were very slimy. This made me think they were in the genus Suillus, but they grow under pines, so I was confused. I turned to the Facebook group Champignons du 37 for help, and overnight, I had a sensible suggestion as to what these mushrooms might be. By then, after a second visit, I had picked a specimen, so I had all the information necessary to confirm the mushroom's identity. Below is the suite of characters that all had to fit, or I could not say for certain I had Iodine Bolete Hemileccinum impolitus (Fr. Bolet dépoli). Syn Xerocomellus pruinatus.

• Cap slimy when wet, like suede when dry; brownish (can be light or dark) and covered in fine white fibres when young (may need a loupe to see); hemispherical when young, flattening with age; developing dimples and a lobed edge with age; 5 - 20 cm across.
• Flesh cream, thicker than the tubes and not discolouring blue when cut. 
• Fine (<1 mm diameter) evenly spaced somewhat polygonal pores.
• Tubes pale yellow when young, getting stronger yellow with age.
• Stem rough (covered in tiny scales) and thick (2 - 6 cm across); red blush at the bottom near roots, and sometimes at the top under the cap; no blue discoloration when cut.
• Spores olive brown.
• Strong odour, especially from the stem when cut (described variously as iodine or walnuts).
  
• Associated with broadleaf trees, especially oak, in warm locations.
  

 

 

To reach an identification (or to determine the species, as a mycologist would say) you need every one of these characters. That's why posting a photo snapped on your phone of a mushroom from the top is never going to get you an accurate identification, and why identification apps don't work for fungi. There are half a dozen lookalike species in this case, of which several are species where real confusion is possible.

Iodine Bolete will grow in both calcareous clay and sandy acid soil. It is present although not common throughout Europe. The mushrooms appear in late summer and through the autumn.

For the record, this species is not toxic, but nobody bothers to eat it.

Taxi for Simon

Every weekday for seven weeks I am catching a taxi-ambulance from Preuilly to Chambray les Tours for my radiotherapy treatment. It's about an hour each way, and is provided by the health service via our local ambulance contractor.

It's a direct, door to door, service. I get picked up about 75 minutes before my appointment, and get deposited immediately outside the radiotherapy department in plenty of time to check in (which is an automated process). The taxi then waits, and brings me home. If I had to pay for it, it would cost me 180€ each day, but I have a "bilan" from the doctor for 35 return trips which I just handed over to the taxi company. From there, all I have to do is tell them on Friday when my appointments for the coming week are, and the taxi magically appears when needed. Three times I have had to share the taxi with other people heading from this area to Tours for treatment, but that's not a problem. If I wanted to have a taxi to myself on those occasions I could, but I would have to pay for it.

Ambulance taxis in the dedicated radiotherapy parking area 

If there is a delay, they even take care of that. Like many businesses they are struggling to get staff, and sometimes there are delays caused by people whose treatment takes longer than expected. That was me last week, when it was two hours before I was in a proper state for being zapped.  There was also an occasion where because of staff shortages the taxi was over an hour late arriving chez nous, so they called the hospital to alert them.

Yesterday I got a "très bien" from the radiotherapist, which is a relief after last week. To mark the halfway point of my treatment I also had an appointment with the oncologist, who was very chirpy, and started the consultation with the word "félicitations". 

I think we're heading in the right direction.

Leopard Slug

Early one morning recently I was making my way on foot through Amboise and encountered a magnificent Leopard Slug Limax maximus (Fr. Limace léopard) on the footpath near the town hall. My guess is that it lives in the museum courtyard in a nice little damp crevice, and was on its way back from a night of gallivanting along the banks of the Loire (or working over the cafés along the Quai de Général de Gaulle).

Leopard Slugs are very large, up to 20 cm in length. This one wasn't that big, but it was more than 10 cm, and at 13 cm exactly average for Leopard Slugs. Their scientific name means 'largest slug', but in fact one of their cousins, the Ash Black Slug L. cinereoniger, is bigger. We get them here too, but they stick to the forests and are not seen in urban environments.

This one is a very typical pattern and colour, but they do vary quite a bit in terms of how stripey or spotty they are and how brown or grey they are. The thicker rounded front is called a shield, and hidden underneath it is a shell. These slugs take a couple of years to reach maturity, but then don't live more than a year after that.

Their natural range is Central Europe and North Africa, but they have been introduced to many other places, including Australia. Solitary in their habits, they live in damp environments, near water courses, in forests, parks and gardens.

Primarily they eat rotting, wilted and dead plants, moss, fungi and dead wood, but they have occasionally been clocked at speeds of 15 cm per minute as they hunt other slugs.

Cyclamens at Chenonceau

Every year we post photos of a carpet of cyclamens photographed somewhere in the Touraine Loire Valley to usher in the autumn. This year the cyclamens are in the grounds of the Chateau de Chenonceau.

Pear and Chocolate Mousse

If you have a pear tree that delivers a multitude of rather small pears, as we used to have, this is a useful recipe that I developed to use up what we had on hand.

 

Photo from our archive of our homegrown Beurre Hardy pears, ideal for this recipe and in season now.

 

Quarter, core and peel 10 small pears. Poach for 20 minutes in a syrup made from ¼ cup of red wine and ¼ cup of sugar, with half a split vanilla pod added. Meanwhile, melt a block of chocolate. Blitz the pears and syrup to a purée. Mix 250 ml of thick cream into the chocolate, then mix that into the pear purée. Serve with a sponge finger.

Photo from our archives of Doyenne de Comice pears and nashis (Asian pear) in our orchard.

An Evening with Fabre

As any entomologist and many naturalists know, Jean-Henri Fabre was an extraordinary man. He worked as a teacher in the south of France in the 19th century, but his real passion was observing and recording wildlife behaviour. He wrote extensively and remarkably accessibly about the natural goings on around his home. I highly recommend reading him, either in French or in translation. You can find many of his essays and learn more about him in English on this site: http://www.efabre.net/

Not long ago my friend Richard invited me to an evening he was holding at his home. A friend of his was going to talk about Fabre and Richard knew I would be interested. I was having a busy week, with clients for chateaux walking tours every day, but I promised to make it to his evening with friends.

Boy am I glad I did! I was expecting a fairly standard, entomology conference style, lecture about Fabre the man and his legacy, or somesuch. What we were actually treated to was a performance, developed and delivered by Richard's friend, a professional actress and singer. She in turn, had been introduced to Fabre by Richard's partner, Patrick, and she had fallen in love with Fabre's writing.

Because the weather was inclement the performance was in the upstairs of Richard and Patrick's barn, a wonderfully rustic and intimate setting. We heard several of Fabre's stories, including one about a dung beetle, interspersed with the sounds of nature, and song. It was marvellous. At the end a hat was passed around for the audience to contribute as they wished.

Afterwards we all gathered around for drinks and nibbles, and discussed what other local venues would be suitable for such a performance next year.