When I came to Alaska 19 years ago I spent my first summer working at a wilderness camp that provided grilled wild salmon dinners for tourists.

I roamed widely in the forest and as fall progressed I found an astonishing number of varieties of mushrooms. I gathered them, not for eating (in fact I made sure I washed my hands thoroughly after handling them, because I had little clue of what was good and what was not) but for display. Each day I filled a large basket with fresh moss and 'plugged in' the mushrooms then put the basket on a central table. It was a popular display.

Some were large - the boletas, especially so - and some were the tiniest things. They ranged in colors from ivory to brown to violet to red orange - the toxic amanitas were luridly so - some were jellied on top and some were concave. I read that southeast Alaska sports a great number of varieties.