mushrooms; a fascinating element in the garden.

I always had a fascination for mushrooms and fungi. Scientifically they don't belong to the flora nor fauna kingdom. They have that fairy-tale atmosphere hanging around them. The mysterious way they pop up seemingly out of the nothing.
They have that surprise element, because you didn't plant them. I think they give an enriching dimension to a natural garden.
Autumn is their peak season, so I thought it being the appropriate time to give them some extra attention and would like to share some pictures I took of them.

This one is ,I think, a Lepiota procera (Parasol mushroom)

And this is the very well known Boletus edulis

Another very well known the Coriolus versicolor

This one I think is Flammulina velutipes, not sure though!

These are two young Coprinus comatus just popping up!

A family of little mushrooms that propably belong to the family of the Mycena

I'm fascinated by mushrooms and toad stools, but am not too good at identifying them, but here are some I found lurking behind one of my compost bins yesterday -

And here are some (I think) sulphur tufts: I think the previous ones may be Oyster mushrooms, but not sure.

It has been a very good autumn for fungi, they say that trees wouldn't live without them, so look after your fungi.

I haven't looked into names either, I have stalled for a while on the ID of other things too, moths in particular. Winter time perhaps will get me going again, there should be plenty of info on the internet for fungi but a good book to flip through can be very useful. Do you have one bonitin?

My fungi has mostly come and gone, but I took some pics...of course!

This one was 10th September

Same day

12th Sept.

Again,

And...

''

Last one didn't work..

17th Sept

I'd love to grow them to eat if I could be certain they were the edible kind and not some poisonous variety popping up amongst the ones I planted or grew. It's really amazing to see them pop up overnight in just one place in someones yard. A dozen or more sometimes. I always wonder why there? Why not all over the yard or any of the ones next to it in the same place? I even suspected the dogs had used that spot at a bathroom causing some chemical imbalance making the conditions perfect for them. I remember seeing where I could order spores in an ad in the back of a seed magazine. Much shade as I have... I might be able to pull it off. :)

and..

I'm happy with all the responses!

Patbar,
'Oyster mushrooms' have no real stem (don't know if yours have) they grow on tree stumps and trunks of deciduous trees, in particular of beech trees.
Your second picture is hard to tell, without details visible.

Wallaby1,

you have some really interesting species in your garden which usually occur in well established old forests.

The first one is (I'm almost sure) an Amanita rubescens.

The third one could also be an Amanita in an older stage, perhaps the same as the first one ?

Nr.4 looks like an old Boletus.
The others I cannot ID.

I have quit a collection of books about mushrooms and fungi and I've found out that you can never have enough of them. It is the same as with plant books, what you cannot find in one, you might find in the other. Or the picture from one book can complement the others, give another angles, other details,information, etc...
But the best of all I have is from Roger Phillips. I have the Dutch translation , but the original is named : 'Mushrooms and other fungi of Great Britain and Europe'. It is the best according to me because of the very sharp pictures, the many angles and details it gives of the same specie and very detailed information.

Maidentheshade,

The poisonous mushrooms are very much in the minority.
A way to feel more confident about identifying them is to purchase a book about only the poisonous one's. I don't know if there exists one in English, I suppose they do, but I have one in Dutch, translated from the French with the title : 'Les champignons toxiques' by J. Baier.

Better even is if you know a professional collector of edible mushrooms to initiate you.

I've spend a couple of times in Norway in the autumn time when the colours are just overwhelming, staying in a hut in the middle of the vast forests, away from civilisation, and I thankfully enjoyed the richness of the woods full of mushrooms and berries. There was an amazing variety of mushrooms, but I limited myself exclusively to the Boletus family, I felt the most confident about, after finding out that none of them are really poisonous to the point of being lethal. The few ones that are poisonous tastes so bitter that one wouldn'd think of eating them anyway. The best of them in culinary terms was the nut-flavored Boletus edulis (like the name already suggests) and is quit easy to recognise, it was also the one that grew the most abundant. The best is if you can pick them still young, not only for the taste but to be ahead of all the little creatures that also enjoy it. They can easily be dried and stored if you cut them in small slices and put them on top of a heating source.



This message was edited Nov 22, 2006 5:10 PM

bonitin, I have seen more different fungi this year than I have ever done, most I haven't seen before. There are woods in the area, many oak trees, perhaps the dry and hot weather enabled some spores to blow elsewhere. I have found since I have been mulching beds with compost mainly composed of leaves that I am getting them growing in that.

#1 and #3 were in different places and as far as I remember #1 didn't open out flat like that.

Numbering pics from the previous 9,

#10 17th Sept.

#11 17th Sept.

#12 which could be the same as #10, love the strength which they have to push up through tough surfaces

I do have other views of some of these, but plenty to post without..

#13

#14 I posted some of these earlier elsewhere. This one has the profiles of Queen Victoria on the left of the eaten part, and the Joker on the right

Wallaby1,

I'm sure that must be the reason that you get these interesting species in your garden.

Nr 11 sure looks like a Russula. Which one is impossible to tell without specific details, there are so many species in this family.
The others I cannot ID.

My knowledge is also quit limited and it is usually in the autumn and winter that I feel the need to refresh my memory and dive into my mushrooms books,
In the rest of the year there are all the plants and flowers that call for attention.

#15 is an old #4

Now you have something to occupy the winter months!

#16 this one collapsed quite quickly

#17. this is an ageing #9

#18, a puff ball which I always have

#19, the stem on this is interesting, I have other better pics of the top and other side

#20. the other side of #19

#21

#22. not sure what's going on with these two, the right one looks much the same as the left other than size, but covered in another fungus of some kind. Why it is only on one I couldn't guess, but I took a pic of a fuchsia hanging near to the ground behind the house which had 2 flies resting under the petals. They appeared to be sheltering there, it had been raining and night was falling. In the morning I looked again and they were covered in this same looking white fungus, there was a programme on TV a day or two ago that showed different bugs being covered in fungi.

This is 26th Sept.

Update on #9 on 26th Sept.

#23 another newcomer, it has a strange tatting effect on top

Waw! You have soooo many!!

Nr. 19-20 is a beauty! I think it is an Amanita caesarea.

Nr. 21 looks very much like a Corprinus disseminatus.

Interesting program you saw on TV. Was it on BBC2 ?

On this little mushroom the opposite is the case!

Side view, it was impossible to get the whole thing focussed

The story of the flies also covered with fungus is a little creepy,
where they still alive ?

Cute little bugs! I'd like to know what the green things on long stems are, it looks space age to me!

Update on #9 ...28th Sept.