Saturday 10 December 2011

More fungi

Over the last few days a rash of little brown mushrooms has appeared on a couple of my raised beds. I expect they are very common and completely boring to those people who know a lot about fungi. I don't, so the appearance of things like this always gives me a little bit of a thrill.




I think that those three are all of the same type, at different stages of their lives, but then again I could easily be wrong. With fungi, a variation of one feature can make a big difference.

Meanwhile, in another part of the garden, the Earth Star fungi are slowly dessicating. They have reached the stage where they look like old leather.


The lighter-coloured sac in the middle - with the "navel" - is still soft, but the outer bits are dry.


I've done my bit to help propagate this species, by puffing some of the spores out of the "navels" onto the surrounding area, so I'll be interested to see if I get lots of them next year.

13 comments:

  1. You've got Star Fungi? Oh, envy. I've never even seen them - only in pictures.

    (Am giving a mushroom growing kit as a Christmas present - not quite the same thing, I suppose.)

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  2. It definitely fungi time - they must have been waiting for a bit of moisture

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  3. When I was a kid we were taught wild mushrooms were bad but we love the "puff balls" as we called them. Haven't seen one since. I am not sure these are exactly what we had but it seems the same.

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  4. I've never seen Earth Star fungi either...where have I been in a dark warm airing cupboard??? ;D

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  5. Do you ever contemplate on growing your own mushroom? It look easy to grow with the environment at your place.

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  6. I have some mushrooms growing in my raised beds as well. Hm. Good idea for a post down the road Mark! :) I've never seen the Earth Star type before. Very interesting.

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  7. the top 3 are fairy ring mushrooms

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  8. Hi from Maryland (US). If found your blog while googling radicchio blogs to see who else was growing it. Love to see what's going on in England and love your garden. Cool mushrooms. My dad learned a lot about mushrooms in this area and has actually picked some to eat. You have to be really careful though! Do you have any growing that you can eat?---Amber

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  9. Hi Amber; Thanks for visiting my blog. I hope you will come back again. No, I do not have any edible fungi in my garden (as far as I know). I don't know enough about fungi to eat any that I haven't bought in a shop!

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  10. There's fungus among us! An old joke from when I was a child. The second photo is particularly beautiful.

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  11. Oh i have you on my blog in the "follow list" now! love to read it!

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  12. I was near one of these while it was puffing out its spores... if i breath it in is it bad for me?

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  13. Anonymous: I don't know. Probably not pleasant but also not poisonous, since the Earth Star is allegedly edible though not considered worth eating.

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