Beautiful Mushroom

                             Beautiful Mushroom                                                   

My grandmother was in love with mushrooms, not to eat, but to adorn every inch of her out-dated orange and yellow kitchen. Whenever I see a Russula with a red cap and fat, white stem, thoughts of eating jelly-saturated, soggy wheat toast triangles consume me. This year, an unexpected little ring of mushrooms sprouted up in our yard. In honor of Aniela, I had to see what kind they were. I found out some interesting facts.

Starting in late summer, as early as July and sometimes continuing into November, you can find the Agaricus species of mushroom. They look a lot like the mushrooms you buy at the store, but they pop up on lawns and in pastures. These mushrooms can grow to be an impressive 5 inches in diameter. They seem to like rich soil, tall grass, and shade.

A remarkable piece of information is that these mushrooms often grow in what is known as a fairy ring where the grass is greener and longer. Inside a fairy ring is the mycelium, a loose network of the delicate filaments that form the body of a fungus. The mycelium consists of the feeding and reproducing hyphae that consume organic matter in the soil and push outward. Nitrogen is created at the outer part of the ring causing the grass to become greener and the mycelium to fruit at the edge. The ring grows gradually, becoming a few inches larger each year.

The pictures were taken with my Canon Rebel XTi.