Fungi & Lichens

This may be a good place to ask this question. I moved to Washington state this year and I don't quite understand my neighbors war against moss and related growing things. I just noticed out my kitchen window very pretty new moss is growing in a square pattern on my garage roof. I love it! And I have mosses and lichen like things growing around the yard that I think really add to the charm. What am I missing here?

What am I missing here?
KatyMac

Slugs!

Oh no, I'm not missing any! They are all alive and healthy in my garden.

.. Ahh, KatyMac ..

Twas truly & sincerely cute! .. LOL ..

- Magpye

Didn't get a chance to read through all of the replies but I'm amazed at the concern over this.. I use mosses, lichens, and fungus (if I can get it to grow) in my garden and it's one of the best ways to make a woodland garden feel that much closer to natural.. As far as mosses go, I can definitely see why having a bryophyte forum would be a good idea, as so many people are being turned on to growing mosses to cover stone walls or to fill in cracks in patios. I took an 'ecology of mosses' class during my time at SUNY ESF and I can definitely attest to there being a good deal of information to be shared about mosses.. And Katymac- you're not missing anything but the desire to have an immaculate house.. and the strange convention that moss on a roof is somehow harmful. In reality a lot of green architects are looking into the insulative power and the absorptive qualities of a green roof system, and since mosses require minimal nutrients, substrate, and light they are pretty good candidates.

As far as lichens and fungus goes, lets first give a bit of respect to two important classes of organisms that must be in place for plants to prosper: without lichens we would have no soil, just rock. And without fungus the vast majority of plants on earth would not exist as we know them, since most depend on mycorrhizal fungal symbionts to survive. I also took a mycology class but I have yet to learn about wild mushrooms and how to safely harvest in my area, and I could see this forum being well used for that. I've also noticed a few fungal threads in the rest of DG.. mostly members who enjoy the organisms aesthetically or who are curious about their proper IDs.

And since no one in the herb forum has started threads on growing cannabis, nor have any of the opium poppy growers shared recipes for tea.. I don't really see the point in assuming that a forum on fungus could lead to talk about hallucinogens. So yeah, I'm an enthusiastic supporter of this would-be forum... and I really just can't see why anyone would want to block it?

Can I post a photo? This guy just appeared under a Hellebore, no clue what it is but boy was it neat. And while the mushroom is gone, the fungus is certainly still there, a part of my garden like any other growing thing.

Just found this today, and want to add my 2 cents worth - I would love for there to be a forum on fungus, lichens, & company. We live near the woods and I would love to be able to have some help with identification, information, etc.

Stacy

Darwin, to the best of my knowledge, there is NO 100% safe way to harvest all but a few species of mushrooms. Morels, puffballs, some of the boletes and a certain number of others, yes---they are, with a little bit of study, 100% safe. But "adventurous" mushroom hunters/eaters too often end up very ill or dead. Still, there are very likely a dozen or more species a person can learn to recognize and collect and eat safely. That's my take on things, anyway.

Yeah we did cover that in the class as well... In Europe collecting wild mushrooms is apparently more common than here, and I think we looked at deaths from different types of mushrooms in France each year and they were in the 100's.. I definitely agree with the idea of not taking any chances.. But I think you're making the list sound shorter than it is. There are a lot of edible mushrooms, and there are a few deadly ones. There are a bunch inbetween too, but I know there are mycology societies with surprisingly large memberships that regularly go on mushroom hunts and I would be very confident to say they haven't had any poisonings.. because the more heads you open up to draw on the less chance a mistake has to be made at all... as long as you aren't one of those 'today I'll be a...' people deciding that grabbing a mushroom field guide and going on a hike is all you need to make a wild mushroom meal... I think I would trust most people toknow that that's a really bad idea.

In truth I don't even really like mushrooms.. but I do like the idea of living off the land, and while I don't have any statistics I think the number of people dying from mistaken mushroom poisonings would be less than the number of pedestrians killed by moving vehicles.. Again no clue on that one but.. well there's no 100% sure way to live a whole day through, I guess. And no, I don't want to up my chances for no reason ;).

Jes checking the current status of UUallace's request .. hmmmm ..

Jes hang in there UU! I'm hopin' like the dickens that something may will come through, soon. Maybe next year ..

- Magpye

This message was edited Dec 18, 2005 6:23 PM

was just looking for a fungi forum and found this, sooo I am assuming there never got to be a forum????

I just found this thread. Actually I'd be interested in a mushroom/moss/fungi forum. I'm seriously considering getting a mushroom kit and growing my own at some point in the future. And I'd be interested in mosses from a gardening perspective.

But I take it the idea was nixed long ago, which is a shame.

Just because we don't have a forum for a particular subject doesn't mean it can't be discussed in one of our existing forums ;o)

Garden Talk would be a perfect place to discuss edible mushrooms, spore to harvest. There's also nothing that says you can't discuss morel- or truffel- foraging (or harvesting other wild edible mushrooms) in the same or Indigenous forum.

If it becomes evident there's a pressing need for a separate forum (because mushroom discussions are crowding out other discussions in that forum), we can consider a forum just for mushrooms.

I am also an avid muchroom hunter and have considered buying a mushroom kit, but I have a healty respect for the problem of detecting the difference between safe and toxic mushrooms, so like perservere1, I only pick the really easy to identify ones -- members of the agericus family, boletus (yum!), chantarelles, and puff balls. I also pick oyster mushrooms and when desperate, shaggy manes.
I do find the ones I don't eat fascinating though. I love the one posted by DarwinESF, but don't plan to eat it even if I can find it.
I am also really aware of the dangers of hallucinagenic mushrooms. Some of them can send you on a one way trip to a mental hospital and the results are not predictable.
I think lichens are pretty but don't care much about the details, but I sure wish we had an uber -mushroom specialist!

Added to Oct 25 original:
You can't say no to Fungi, Lichens, and Protists.
There doesn't seem to be a forum on diseases.
Diseases called Fungi are usually the fungal generation of Protists. The other generation having previously been classified as plants or animals.
e.g. Macrocystis pyrifera (Giant Kelp, formerly a plant) is related to Phythophora (root rot, formerly a fungus). The free swimming generation of both is very similar.