Ahh, a day off. After an intense two-week bout of work, I celebrated the evening with a glass of wine and a book in the rocking chair on the porch.
I noticed some mushrooms in the yard. This is just one of several examples of these white mushrooms popping up, in the nature of mushrooms, everywhere...
...including pushing through rock in the driveway.
I don't know my mushrooms, so perhaps someone can help identify them.
Then this morning while walking Darcy, I was startled to see these beauties. Pink mushrooms?
They were growing in a semi-shaded slope of the roadside ditch.
I'd never seen such a thing. They were beautiful.
As I finished snapping pictures, I glanced down the ditch and saw a whole bunch more. Go figure.
Mushrooms of mystery. Anyone know their fungi? Who can identify the species?
I live in the Midwest among oak and hickory trees, so the mushrooms we get here will be quite a lot different from yours, but I see red ones here that look a fair bit like yours. Ours are russula emetica, or "Sickener" mushrooms. As you might guess, they'll make you throw up. Pretty, though.
ReplyDeleteKeep Mr Darcy away from those until you ID them....
ReplyDeleteI'd see if there isn't someone local who knows the different varieties...that's a mistake you probably only get to make once and I wouldn't trust pictures alone since there are different stages of growth
--jim
They've been popping up all over everywhere at my place too, including those you pictured, and I'm in the southeast. At Tractor Supply the other day there was a book on them which I almost bought. After skimming some of the book with details about some of the poisonous ones, I decided to simply not go there and put the book back. There's enough to think about without adding something remotely iffy like perhaps making an inedible mistake with the current nature's bounty of mushrooms.
ReplyDeleteThey are beautiful.
There are posts all over about harvesting wild stuff to " survive". The things I'm comfortable with like wild persimmons or muscatines plums and such, ok. The rest sort of reminds me of water bath canning meats...not worth the risk.
Having said that, one of my big pots grew up in weeds that looked like purslane. I weeded everything out but the carbon copies of pictures of purslane, and it's a very beautiful full pot of the stuff. And yet. Still haven't tried it and probably won't.
But the mushrooms are inspiring me to perhaps buy some to grow since they are obviously so happy to oblige. Those I'd feel safe eating.
My spouse's mom used to make the kids saute'd purslane. I tried it. Not my cup of tea. Spouse let a big patch grow until I informed him that when it seeds the seeds stay viable for years. Must be picked and burned or put in the trash.
DeleteMaybe I shouldn't have let that pot grow full. However, by itself and with those small flowers, it's pretty.
DeleteYour state college will have a person who specializes in fungi. I tried my local FL Extension Service who connected me. Had some pink ones similar to yours and some that looked like male appendages - he identified them, can't remember name & never had them again, and reminded me never to eat any I can't completely identify.
ReplyDeleteThe ones that look particularly "anatomical" are probably "stinkhorn" mushrooms, many of which are edible. Given the name, the smell that gave them the name, and the appearance, I'm not sure why anyone would bother trying them, but to each his own.
DeleteIf you want / need to contain them, dig up, immediately put in a container for destruction, and then sprinkle the ground with Baking Sode. This will change soil PH, mushrooms will not come back...
ReplyDelete