Another big fairy ring of Chlorophyllum molybdites (Green-spored Lepiota)

Someone got my contact info from a show I've got up right now, and told me about a big fairy ring by her house. It always seems to be a race against The Mower with these, but this time I made it.

It was big.

Green-spored Lepiota fairy ring

The street is over by the trees, and you could see the ring from there.  That black thing is my backpack.
 
      

My knife (above) is 3-1/8" long (unopened).

These are mature, and starting to dry up; the surface felt just like parchment paper.



The gills (which start out pure white)



The GILLS



The GILLS!!!

Lookit that! Like seaweed, or Georgia O’Keeffe.

When these are young and just coming up, the gills are lovely white (see here for another entry, of another fairy ring, from another time). The whole thing is white, except for some slight buff coloration of the veil remnants on the cap.  Also when they're young seems to be when overly-eager people decide they look just like the button mushrooms in the store, and since they smell nice and are so pretty and clean, they eat them and get violently ill. Don't eat these. Just look at them, and say "Wow! Look how big some of these suckers are! Aren't they cool?!? And growing in a ring like that!"

Foray: "a quick raid, usually for the purpose of taking plunder"

Well that seems a little harsh.

Anyway, here's some recent finds:

Leucoagaricus rubrotinctus

Now isn't that nice! Pink, with fringe!

Marasmius capillaris

These always manage to grow directly from the veins in the leaf. The stems are like horsehair.

Below is a very young Lion's Mane mushroom. There isn't a hint of yellowing on it, which means there isn't a hint of sour taste to it, which means it tastes like sweet lobster. I was hiking with a wonderful new hiking-pal, and we saw this, and I could have knocked her down, harvested this and run away, but instead I gave it to her and told her to cut it into 1/2"-thick slabs and swirl it in melted butter. "First one's free..."

Hericeum erinaceus

Another view of the Lion's Mane.

Mushroom foray assortment, Sept. 18

I just got to keep slamming these up here or I'll never get caught up! The woods are just loaded now, when we hike we don't get more than 50 feet in 1/2 an hour, looking at stuff, taking pictures.

Polyporus alveolaris, Hexagonal-pored polypore

Lycoperdon perlatum, Gem-studded puffball

I really appreciate whoever keeps running up ahead of me, arranging these lovely compositions. Pretty sure it's fairies.

Lepiota cristata

I kept seeing these little mushrooms and kept ignoring them, thinking they were another impossible-to-identify little something, until I stopped and got my face up on them, and then they became beautiful.

Inonotus dryadeus, "Weeping Conk"

That's some wacked-out fungus! Young ones "exude amber-colored droplets." Yes, they do.

Mycophagy!

A slug having a really good time. This would be like you or me lying face-first on a 6-foot cake.

I'm finding all this stuff, all these mushrooms, all these creatures, everything in this blog, within 5 miles of my home. How? Because mushrooms are everywhere. I've said it before and I'll say it again.