Monday, July 26, 2010

Strange Mushrooms!

I walk just about every evening with my neighbor, her dog named Tillie, and one or two of my sons. Last night we saw these mushrooms in our neighbor's yard. I thought they were the neatest things, so my son got his camera and took pictures.

they look a little like golf balls on tees


This evening on our walk, they looked like this. . .




wow! they look like three flying saucers, all in a row!


Here's one, all by itself

they are larger than they appear in these pictures


Have you seen mushrooms like this before? Do you know what they are called?

They have me wondering. . . what will they look like tomorrow.



13 comments:

  1. I don't think I have seen any like this. Pretty.

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  2. I know I've seen them before Janet, but I have no idea what they are. They sure did look like golf balls on tees!

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  3. I have not seen these before. I like the way they looked liked golf balls though!

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  4. I have no idea what they are but aren't things like that fun to find! blessings, marlene

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  5. Janet,

    Mushroom and fungi identification is not my strong suit, but I believe the mushrooms in question are called Destroying Angel (Amanita bisporigera).

    Matthew

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  6. You know, Matthew, I looked around on the internet, and you might be right. If you are, it is very poisonous!

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  7. Thank you so much for sharing these as they grew and blossomed... Most mushrooms are poisonous.. the only goods ones in my opinion are the ones you purchase at the store.. Very safe ;)
    M

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  8. I thought it very well might be poisonous when I first saw it. Matthew is one smart guy with his fungi identification.

    I'll add these little tidbits of fungi information.

    That particular style of fungus (what shows above ground is actually just the spore producing body - - - the main part of the fungus is called hyphae and is below ground) is called a basidium. When it was closed and looked like a golf ball, it wasn't yet releasing any spores.

    But the next day, when it was opened up like an umbrella, the "gills" on the underneath side were open and the spores can then be released.

    So - - - there will be MORE fungi in that yard as those spores develop.

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  9. Those things are so weird. It just occurred to me while reading your post that I should probably be checking my yard for mushrooms, if not for any other reason than to keep my dogs from eating them!

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  10. Can't say that I've seen them before either. Not and paid attention to the changes they make. So I might have seen them in one stage but not the other.
    But I do like photographing mushrooms. It's a challenge.

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  11. This had me intrigued so I did a little research. Check out this link to a pdf from Mother Earth News and look under Earthstars. Here is the link http://www.mushroomhunter.net/articles/people/Celebrating%20The%20Wild%20Mushrooms.pdf

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  12. Never seen them-but I'd like too : )

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  13. Jeanna, I read the article you mentioned in your comment. They really know a lot about mushrooms. I checked out the Earthstars and looked up pictures of them on the internet. Although they sounded a little like my mushrooms by their description in the article, the pictures I found on the internet were different than the mushrooms I posted about. Thanks for your research and link!

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