These huge things have started coming up in my planter and stone wall that is hiding an Oak Tree stump. This one is attacking a Stella D'Oro. It is yellow and black. (I looked for a Mushroom group on DG and didn't find one - so "youse guys" are my only hope.
Sure looks like one of those 'shelf' fungi.
Do you think it is poison?
Well, I'm afraid that I don't know just what kind of fungus it is, but I just dumped a wheelbarrow full of it into the wooded area of my yard. It comes up in the veggie garden where the big pine roots are. I wish I could just let it be as it would help break down those darn roots faster, but it grows, and G R O W S and engulfs everything in its path, so I dig it up and dump it. I doubt very much that it could be edible ---- too bad, we'd be set for mushroom sauce for a year!
Do you keep getting it in the same spot year after year? Does it usually come in the fall?
That looks kinda cool.
Many fungi will feed on old wood and stumps. As the stump decays the fungi will diminish.
Give it a few years, LOL.
Andy P
Dave47 - first time I have seen this icky thing. Sometimes I get great fungi that look like upside-down, neon carrots. But the "carrots" are early spring. I just wish this would leave the poor little Stella alone! Bully.
These are cauliflower mushrooms, one of the kinds we would forage and eat when I was a kid: http://www.mushroomexpert.com/sparassis_crispa.html
Yours is not one of them. Mushrooming is a fading Italian-American pasttime.
Dave47 - Thanks for the llink to the mushroom site. I have been giving thought to learning about and trying to grow mushrooms. They are such a good source of food that takes very little resources. You don't happen to know any Italian-Americans who still go mushroom hunting and might like some company, fo you?
LOL! I'm Italian-American and I haven't a clue. At the end of last summer, I had all kinds of mushrooms popping up all over the place. Some looked just like portobellos, but some looked like Death Angels. There were also Giant Puffballs, Elegant Stinkhorns (very stinky), some tiny little orange things, some that looked like potatoes, etc. etc. I compared them to the pictures in my mushroom book, but who knows? The only mushrooms I eat are from the supermarket.
Loretta,
If you've got giant puffballs, I envy you! We had several one year and I only picked one, not knowing that picking them wouldn't affect their returning the following year. They are just about the only wild mushroom that can't possibly be mistaken. As long as they are solid white all the way through, they are perfectly safe to eat. You have to pick them while they are still nice and white and firm. If you wait too long they start to get kind of wet and go to an off-white to buff color and become very un-appetizing (I know, as we just got one a couple of years ago and I waited too long to pick it, thinking that it would grow bigger.). I don't know what the season is for them in your neck of the woods, but here they come up in the Fall --- generally late September to early October.
YC, My older brother still does. Cooks or freezes the large ones and pickles the little ones. (I'll ask if he wants to mentor). Personally, I can live with cultivated mushrooms, but the hardcore look down on them.
It does sadden me that all these little pieces of culture are getting lost. I always mean to relearn this part of my childhood.
Dave47 - yes, please ask your brother! (I hope he lives in connecticut or New York.)
I'll ask him to retrain me & train you. Fall is the big mushroom season for what we gather.
McCool, Thanks for the puffball info. I'll pay closer attention to them if they come back.
Dave47, You're right. It is sad.
I have never seen anything like that around here - sorry I am of no help. I wouldn't eat it if I were you LOL.
We had an older gentleman of Italian descent who would wander around the neighborhood early in the morning with a flashlight, searching for shrooms. I never knew it had ties to any specific culture. We knew not to worry about seeing the light bobbing around our yard in the dark...
Julie
there's an italian guy here who gathers wild mushrooms and has invited me to join him. i'd love to learn but he's quite the lothario and i don't really want to go into the woods with him alone.oh well.
Ohmygosh! A new twist to "come and see my etchings" - come and see my mushrooms! LOL
