By popular demand, here's a small flurry of fall fungus photos. I'm far away from my reference tomes at the moment, so I'm hoping for an assist from friendly fungus fans. (BetsyLee, I'm looking at you!)
These were all along a single morning walk. It is, indeed, the season for mushrooms. (And there are more that will be posted in the next day or two, as I get them ready to upload.)
There are a few of my walking haunts where the smell of mushrooms in the air gets really strong, especially after a nice rain. I'm almost guaranteed to find some interesting specimens on days like that.
There are also places where the environment is obviously conducive to fungal growth - rotting leaves, decomposing tree snags and moist meadows, for example.
Baloo never understood my fascination for fungus. He'd give them a sniff and move on to look for chipmunks or something else more interesting to canine sensibilities. He was definitely patient with his human.
My brother has tried these little puff balls, but he says the giant ones are much better than these little guys - it takes a big pan full of them to get much to actually munch on, too.
Okay, I hope that will satisfy the fungus fanciers for a day or two. There are more to come. :)
7 comments:
Nice selection ! The last two pics look like Gem-studded Puffballs, Lycoperdon perlatum. The fourth pic looks like young specimens of Resinous Polypore. For size, I'm comparing them to the bark they are growing from. The first three pics, I just can't tell. :^(
I wish I could smell what you are describing. I used to be able to, but my nose isn't what it used to be. I miss smelling that smell. The smell of the woods was an important part of the woodsy experience for me. -sigh-
Hugs to ya from BetsyLee
Thanks for sharing these - there are so many interesting fungi to see this time of year. I came across a trio of giant puffballs while boxing last weekend. Two of them were about the size of large cantaloupes, the third was almost a foot across!
brandicat
We have lived in our house for over 35 years and have rarely seen a mushroom in our yard. Maybe just a couple little tiny ones ever so often. This year, however, something about the weather conditions caused them to suddenly grow everywhere...overnight... huge ugly ones; about 5 or 6 varieties. One variety looked just like a friend egg in size, shape, and color. Since we have grandchildren in our yard often, we couldn't risk them finding poisonous ones, so we were advised to pull them and dispose of them. My husband pulled between 25 and 30 POUNDS of mushrooms!!!!! Just from our normal sized yard! People around here are calling it "the year of the mushroom". QM
that should say "fried egg". .....
Thanks for the IDs, BetsyLee. I'll see what I can do with the rest of these fungal friends when I get home. I'll post another set of puzzlers for you to try and identify in the next day or two. :) I am sorry you can't smell the little beauties any more. I love detecting mushroom fragrance wafting on the air. Hugs right back to you!!
brandicat, I'm so jealous! I love giant puffballs - my sister and brother do, too. I remember one year when we found a huge bloom of them and filled our jeep with them. I still have a picture somewhere.... My father liked to fry them in butter and serve them with oyster sauce. Good memories. :)
QM, that's a lot of mushrooms from one yard. Every now and then we find a huge hen of the woods and can get eight or ten pounds in one go, but mostly we're lucky to find a couple pounds of tasty goodness when we go out hunting. (Of course, we are only counting the edible and choice ones!!) It was probably a really good call to rid your yard of unknown fungi to protect the grandchildren. I can think of a couple "fried egg" look-alikes that are quite toxic.
Post a Comment