Harper found a treasure in the garden a few days ago!
Luckily, we found her before she got to it. Although these mushrooms look friendly and edible, neither Sam or I know our mushrooms well enough to determine their safety. We maintain a high level of respect to the powerful family of mushrooms.
I really like seeing them in the garden because they are unbelievably beautiful and also because they are a sign that there is a complex ecosystem thriving in the soil. Mushrooms are the fruit of an extensive underground network of “roots”, actually called mycelia, which decompose plant material and contribute to the production of organic matter. Mycelium itself is an important food source for many soil invertebrates, such as earthworms.
Since Harper found the first mushrooms, I’ve been finding many of them too, every day, especially when we had a couple days of nice heavy rain.
Wow, how beautiful are your photos! those mushrooms look so yummy but I also feel just like what you said, no to mushrooms you do not know they are safe!
Cheers,
Grace
http://www.dipbot.unict.it/funghi_etna/photogallery/Amanita%20verna.jpg
It’s not this but it’s in the same family: Destroying Angel. I saw 3 of these in Legion Park last week, they were really big and so beautiful. You’re so right to be wary. It could be a Death Cap. “The cap is 2¼–6″ (6–16 cm) wide, smooth, with greenish to yellowish pigments, usually sticky or slippery but sometimes dry, often adorned with one to several patches of thin white veil tissue. The gills are white, crowded together, and very finely attached to the upper stalk. In young specimens, a white, membranous partial veil tissue extends from the edge of the cap to the upper stalk, covering the gills (later remaining attached to and draping from the upper stalk). The stalk is white to pallid, up to 6″ (15 cm) long or tall, with a large rounded bulb at the base; the bulb includes a white sac-like volva (see the two photos on this webpage).
THE BASE OF THE STALK AND THE TELL-TALE VOLVA ARE OFTEN BURIED IN THE SOIL.” http://www.amanitashop.com/amanita-poisoning/deathcap.htm