Both of these are likely to be members of the
amanita family and may be one of the varieties known as the "Destroying Angel." That name's a hint: don't eat them.
They look like set pieces from a fantasy film.
That one didn't last long. It stood nearly a foot tall and the cap was gone a few days after I took this photograph.
This one, on the other hand, stood...
Got mowed around....
Grew....
And fell.
3 comments:
The only mushroom that I'll pick and eat from the wild are morels since they're so easy to identify. The only problem I've had with them is that lots of critters like to inhabit their spongy forms and I have to soak them in salty water to get the bugs out.
I'll leave the picking and eating of capped 'shrooms to those who (at least think that they) know what they're doing.
The wooded slope of my parents' old back yard used to have a morel explosion in many springs. They seemed to be a lot thicker after we cut down some standing-dead trees; I used to wonder if they thrived on the sawdust on the ground after a few years. Wiki tells me that it's more associated with burned-over areas than cuts, but that they're still associated with dead trees.
Now that we've left Minnesnowta and are living in Wyoming I'll have to look for them sometime in the woods around here. Lots of burned-over areas in the forests.
Morels are pretty much it for me, too. I'm not good enough at identifying the other kinds. I can usually tell the really bad ones, but I'm far hazier on the ones that are okay to eat.
When Locally Grown Gardens was open, he had morels every Spring. They took a heap of soaking to get the bugs out! But well worth it.
Had one of those in the front yard last week where the maple tree used to be. Amazing how fast they pop up. I hit it with the lawn mower in the bright-white stage.
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