Fairies in the Yard

Have fairies danced in your yard? — they have in ours and in neighborhood yards too.

According to legend, fairies or pixies often gather at night. Dancing in a circle, wearing down the grass and leaving a trampled ring of brown or dead grass. A day later, mushrooms spring up encircling the dance ring. It's been said that since toads sat on the mushrooms, they became referred to as “toadstools.”

Many believed fairies caused this phenomena and called the circles fairy rings, fairy circles, or pixie rings.

A mushroom ring provides the most obvious evidence of these rings. When "fairy" ring mushrooms first appear, there are numerous fruiting bodies (mushrooms) that look like small bulbs on top of long stalks. 

When mature, mushrooms are large and the bulb expands. The circles are the result of a pattern of mycelium growth. 

Mycelium is the vegetative part of a fungus and is the underground organism that produces the reproductive fruit bodies known as mushrooms. The circular growth pattern is a factor of soil type,condition, soil nutrients, obstructions underground, and dirt composition. The ground needs to be even and well composed, which is why the rings appear on lawns.

The organic matter that fairy rings break down is often tree stumps, roots, logs, and pieces of organic material in soil below the lawn. As these depletes, the fairy ring(s) disappear.

Several fairy rings may look together on lawns that were wooded. Yet, they don’t cross each other; fungal activity stops when fungi from different rings contact each other. (It seems mushrooms are not as social as they look.)

You can only notice these rings once mushrooms crop up on grassy lawn areas. However, the circular mycelium underground is always present and growing.

Yes, I believe that fairies dance in the rings on our lawn.

And, just wondering . . .

Do you believe it too? ('tis the season for believing)

What's in the Lawn?

Large groupings of mushrooms cropped up in the F&P front lawn the past couple of weeks. In the past several years, we've had two large trees removed, yet this is the first time these large mushrooms have appeared.

In doing online research, I learned that it could take quite awhile for some of the former tree matter to decay causing a delay in the appearance of these "shrooms," which are actually fungal matter. 

And, unlike in the human world where fungi is often not a good thing, it's actually beneficial in many parts of the plant world.

Mushrooms grow where there is healthy organic matter in the soil. While they are not necessarily bad for the lawn, most homeowners find them unattractive and remove them down or apply fungicide treatment.

The ones in our front yard provided some good photo opps. These photos were au natural with no post processing or special effects applied.

Shortly after this photo session, I eliminated them from the lawn because our home is "on the market" and these clumps may not seem attractive to a prospective buyer of which they were none recently. And, there is that whole issue of "curb appeal."

For a short time they were great subject matter. You don't need to go far to find photo possibilities, just take a walk in your front (or back) yard

Beauty All Around

Welcome to August!

After a recent rainfall, I took a short walk and found these colorful (and very wet) blooms. My camera was a point & shoot Canon digital Elph which was hand held.

Please Note: these collages are not clickable to enlarge; the post was composed using the MarsEdit blog program on a MacBook. This program does not provide the same features as the Microsoft Live Writer blog program does for PC blogging. There is no LW software for Mac users (sadly).

It was a brief shower and later that afternoon, the sun broke through as I continued my walk.

Hosta is a popular perennial named in honor of the Austrian botanist, Nicolaus Thomas Host. Its blooms are purple, my favorite color.

Beauty is also found closer to the ground, quite literally by getting down to be (very) up close.

THANKS to Everyone who reads our blog posts, whether or not a comment is left . We appreciate your visits —  Grenville & Beatrice

Shrooms – Nature’s Recyclers

Did I mention that we’ve had a lot of rain since last week?  It’s been nearly 5 days of on and off showers, including some downpours.
Lawns around town are sprouting rows of white caps.
Mushrooms are fungi that live on dead organic matter and grow and feed on decaying dead roots, old mulch, animal waste or rotting stumps that were covered by soil.
They are the fruit of this fungus. An abundance of food sources for the fungi in the soil will ensure lots of lawn mushrooms. The more food sources the fungi have, the bigger the lawn mushrooms will grow.
That’s why some lawn mushrooms are huge and others are small – it depends on the amount of food sources  available.
Most mushrooms generally are harmless to grasses; some  consider them unsightly or want remove them as children might try eating them. Some variations are poisonous.
The mushrooms that are visible are only the fruiting body, which primarily spreads spores to create new colonies. It’s what's going on underground, that keeps the fungus alive. Most mushrooms reproduce asexually by releasing thousands of spores through their gills into the open air for dispersion into the environment.
Mushrooms are natural recyclers – most are harmful to a lawn. They decompose organic matter and release nutrients for plant growth into the soil.

So if you have a lawn full of mushrooms – be thankful. It’s not a bad thing.

Mainely Shrooms

These colorful (but deadly) mushrooms were photographed this week at Acadia National Park. This post is especially for Christer at The Cottage by the Crane Lake as we always enjoy his ‘shroom photos.  

   

If you know the names of any of these ‘shrooms and want to post a comment, please do so.

Warning – there there are no cukes or zukes left in the F&P garden for prizes. Yes, we know some of you are so disappointed :-)

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.    Several were cut open as a result of lawn cutting the other night. The pink and yellow colors were very striking.

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).
Several had been cut open.
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.
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!