Boletus Mushroom

This is one of a few boletus mushrooms I found in a yard the other day.  I didn't pick them though since they looked so pretty and they weren't in my yard.

Since I didn't pick them, I also didn't test them to see if they were of an edible variety.  The initial look though is promising.  Wild harvesting mushrooms is not a thing around here either so there's only a slim chance that these would ever be picked.

I find that mushrooms are much more likely to be left alone and admired for the look of them in an area.  We've had a lot of rain recently and so there are more mushrooms than usual popping up.

Fairy Ring Mushroom

To start, I am not an expert on mushrooms.  That being said I'm 99% sure that this is a fairy ring mushroom.  I did not however eat it since there is still that 1% chance I'm horribly wrong and would die.  Not good enough odds.  In addition to these pictures it had the most wonderful mushroom smell.  When I think of a delicious mushroom, that was the smell I got.  But again, 1%....

If you have any skill at identifying mushrooms I would love to have a second, third, and even fourth or more opinion on the variety of mushroom this is.  In the off chance I can get a positive identification, I placed the mushroom on one of the pots outside on top of mulchy dirt in hopes that it would propagate.  I keep the area plenty watered and who knows I might get a delicious meal out of this.

I found this and several others of the same type while hiking in the woods in south east Oklahoma.  The trees that were around were pecan, cedar, oak, and a spattering of others.  Trees I can identify more or less, mushrooms not so much.

The pictures are several hours after picking and are only slightly darker than they were when picked.  Some of the others had a slightly flatter look and the edges started to become wavy.

At this point in the garden they have shriveled and turned brown.  I don't know if any spores were released or if anything will happen but if anything does happen I will revisit the variety at that time.

In the mean time, please comment and let me know what you think.

Pleated Inkcap Mushroom

So many people love to eat mushrooms but, as you probably know, most mushrooms are not the eating variety. This is one such fella.  Not poisonous but not something to be put in your soup or sandwich.

Often people think mushrooms are harmful to their yards or plants.  What mushrooms really do is break down dead material and make it into something plants can use to grow.  I barely got to see this guy since it lasts less than 24 hours before disappearing itself.  With all the rain I have also gotten some other mushrooms growing in various pots on the patio.  The more mulch the more likely it is to get mushrooms since mulch is pretty much the opposite of broken down material.  Last year's mulch is this year's dirt.  The slugs seem to really like some of the mushrooms that have been growing I've removed several of them and tossed them far into the yard, hopefully to forage somewhere else.

Something I didn't know was that some mushrooms in the same group as this little guy can be used to gather ink.  As the name inkcap implies, some of the larger mushrooms actually drip a black fluid containing spores that can be used as ink. They drip so that the wind can catch the spores and take them away.  As they do so the edges curl away and up to promote the drip and release of the spores.

Public Service Announcement: Never eat a mushroom unless you KNOW that it is edible.  There are so many varieties out there and you are safer not guessing.

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Mushrooms

When I think of mushrooms I usually think of a pizza topping.  For the longest time I didn't realize I had been eating them in my chinese food for years, they just didn't look like pizza toppings.

My yard doesn't usually get mushrooms popping up but my yard is usually really dry and mushrooms like a good bit of moisture to grow.  By the time it rains here it's also gotten colder.  If it gets too cold mushrooms don't like that either.  In southeast Texas in the piney woods area the moisture is much better mushroom growing.  the rains are more frequent and the temperatures usually milder.  Of course there are those people who water their yards so much that it seems like a nice long rain has occurred. In that case you can spot the occasional mushroom sprouting up here and there right in the middle of an otherwise well kept yard.