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Saturday, August 28, 2010

Mushrooms in the Yard

Walking around the Frog & PenguINN  yard this week, I found these several varieties of mushrooms growing on the front lawn and in the garden among the weeds (whoops we meant to pull them). Summer weather on the VA Eastern Shore has been very hot and humid  with some heavy downpours and always morning moisture.

After doing an online search and pulling up thousands of mushrooms images, I decided to simply post the photos. Christer, you may already know these as you seem familiar with so many different types through your blog posts. I’m not sure if the same types grow in Sweden as well – my  knowledge of fungi is very limited.

These red mushrooms were growing in the front yard in various groups of singles, doubles and multiples. They were most concentrated around  2 large trees in the front yard.mushroom red (4)    mushroom red (11) Several were cut open as a result of lawn cutting the other night. The pink and yellow colors were very striking.
mushroom gray (8)
mushroom red (6)This is another type found near the above ones also on the front lawn. It was a grayish-brown color with very decorative edges (also nicked by the lawn mower).
mushroom gray (1) Several had been cut open.
mushroom gray (11) This last variety was in the vegetable garden hiding in the large weed patches around the tomato plants. Its coloring is brown and light tan. I tried to get the underside we well, but the mosquitoes were attacking that night.
mushrooms (1) mushrooms (4)While my fungi knowledge is nearly non-existent, I know that we will NOT be picking any of these to have in a salad.

Anyone (hint, hint Christer) please comment if you can ID any of these varieties. Curious minds want to know!

12 comments:

Montanagirl said...

I know pretty much nothing about fungi either. Those red ones are kind of pretty, though!

Ginnie said...

I am amazed that you have so many varieties on your property. I haven't seen one on mine!
Your smart to leave them off your table, though.

Elaine said...

We too get lots of mushrooms growing in our yard this time of year, although yours look like different varieties. The last looks a bit like our Birch Bolete. I won't eat any of the wild mushrooms either, but people that know their mushrooms happily gather them here. The most prized ones are the Morels that grow well after a forest fire.

The cottage by the Cranelake said...

I can say this much about the top ones. The are so called Boletales. f uo look under the hat it sort of got holes just like on the fourth photo. But those holes can be much smaller or bigger as in that photo. They vare sort of like a spunge there if You understand what I mean. I can also say that we don´t have those species here. Most of them are edible, but some just taste really awful :-) :-)

The rest of the mushrooms looks like those I have in my lawn too and shouldn´t be eaten :-)

Have a great day now!
Christer.

Lois Evensen said...

What great images! No, I can't ID any of them either, but I enjoy seeing them.

Hugs,
Lois

Beatrice P. Boyd said...

Thanks everyone for your comments. We found a mushroom book in our nature book collection so I may go and try to ID these through photos in the book.

Mona, these were very colorful as subjects.

Ginnie, I agree that they will just stay on the lawn and not the table. There may be even more varieties than these. It's amazing just what you can find in your own backyard by looking around.

Yes Elaine, we know of groups that go foraging in wooded areas especially for these tasty treats. When we lived in NJ we went with a group and these folks really knew their 'shrooms. I have never seen (or tasted) a morel. Thanks for the ID tio, I will check boteles in the book we have.

Christer, thanks for the help and your comment is like Elaine's, so I will check out that variety. yes, the undersides do look very spongey and quite a bit more interesting than the tops. I thought these might differ from those in your area. And we will not be sampling any of these. They are fascinating just to look at as photographic subjects.

Anvilcloud said...

While at the cottage one year, I also did a shroom series. They're very interesting.

possum said...

One year I painted a series of watercolors of mushrooms for a kid's guide to mushrooms in the Pocono area... I remember some red ones but not their names.. One was a Red-haired something... one was a brick-red hyphlo... something... It was long, long ago. There were little tiny bright red ones, too. I am sure the Little People were near by... I wonder if I still have a copy of that book... somewhere in the midst of the library I live in...

Anvilcloud said...

I wanted to tell you that I tried your eggplant recipe from earlier this month. It was very good, but your recipes don't exactly cook themselves in minutes. :)

Beatrice P. Boyd said...

Hi Lois, most folks can't ID these either, including me! Thanks for the visit today. We are certainly enjoying your cruise!

Ageed, AC that shrooms are interesting but trying to get good shots of these little things is difficult when you have to get down sooo low.

Glad to hear you tried the eggplant recipe, and no it doesn't cook in minutes but in the oven! Hope you enjoyed it. We have lots more eggplants growing so more recipes to try.

Hi Possum, I think I saw there were some Little People around, but maybe too small for me to see. We have a mushroom guide book and maybe I'll try to find out the names of these fungi.

aurbie said...

Why are mushrooms so tempting? There has to be long complicated answer to that. Let me know if you find out.

Super photos!

Beatrice P. Boyd said...

I'm not sure, Patty, but there are so many interesting varieties just in the lawn (err weeds).