Thursday Thirteen 347: Fun Fungi

It isn't unusual to find a wide variety of fungi in the nearby woods, but there's been so much rain this summer that patches of mushrooms have been sprouting everywhere, including well-kept lawns. As I was returning home from a Curtis Prairie walk two weeks ago, I noted the usual suspects along the wooded trails. What I didn't expect was an entire plantation of mushrooms, of all shapes and sizes, under the walnut trees at the nearby park. There are hundreds of them.

While I couldn't resist stopping to photograph them, I did not pick any. Never, ever pick any sort of mushroom unless you know what it is, and that it is not poisonous. The UW Arboretum occasionally features free guided walks on mushrooms, the most recent being this past Sunday and geared towards families/children. Their October 26 walk is about "Autumn Woodlands" and will talk specifically about fall leaves, mushrooms, "and other delights" (to use their words).

Here are some of the fungi I saw during the course of my walk two weeks ago. The first four photos were taken at Grady Tract/UW Arboretum, while the rest are from a local park. As always, click on any photo for a larger view.




Your classic mushroom shape.

Watch out for poison ivy, whether photographing or picking mushrooms in the woods!

Fungi and moss cover a rotting log.

Someone's been nibbling . . .



Mushrooms as far as the eye can see . . .



Doesn't this one look so elegant?



There were a lot of these huge "loaf" type mushrooms.



I don't think I want to know what that white gunk is.



This fluted bowl-shaped one was near the lone crabapple at the park.

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