Blue Mushrooms

While mowing one of my fields behind our house I noticed some large blueish mushrooms growing under a pine tree. I returned the next day to check out the mushroom and take some pictures of the Indigo Milk Cap mushroom (Lactarius indigo).



These older mushrooms appear blueish/gray with some darker blue bands on top.



This younger mushroom has blue gills on the underside and oozes a deep blue liquid where the stem is cut.



The Indigo Milk Cap gets its name from the deep blue "milk", or latex, that oozes when the mushroom tissue is cut or broken.



These mushrooms have a firm/meaty flesh and are delicious when sliced and cooked in butter.

Fairy Rings

As the dry conditions of late summer cause lawns to turn light green (before changing to brown) I've noticed dark green circles, some with mushrooms, start to appear in the lawn at our barn. Unlike the crop circles of England, these are fairy rings, also known as fairy circle, elf circle, elf rings or pixie rings.




Fairy rings are caused by soil-inhabiting fungi breaking down organic matter, such as old tree stumps and roots, in the soil. As the fungus feeds on the decomposing organic material nitrogen is released which the grass uses, causing it to grow and develop a contrasting green ring. A ring or arc is caused by the fungus feeding on the organic material until it consumes the material. To continue growing, the fungus must spread outward from the a central starting point and towards nutrients. As the fungus moves outward from the central starting point, a ring is formed.



Multiple rings can be formed, but the ring will stop and not cross another ring because nutrients have been consumed in the inside of the ring.



Sometimes the mushrooms are visible on the outside edge of the ring and the dark green grass on the inside of the ring,

Several dead trees had been removed from this area of the lawn a few years ago and the fungus is feeding on the old tree roots.

Fall Fungus

While the colorful fall foliage gets the attention of most people there is a smaller display of color on the forest floor. Fall is also a peak time for members of the fungus family.

It's hard to miss a bright orange maple tree in the fall but a lot of the fall fungus is just as colorful, just smaller.

The following image may look like a large orange mushroom in a pine forest but the mushroom is less than an inch across and the "pine forest" is a carpet of moss.



Russula emetica (Poisonous)



Yellow Spindle Coral (Clavulinopsis fusiformis)




Clavaria zollingeri







Puffball



The fall foliage of this year will soon fall to the forest floor where it will decay and feed next year's crop of fall fungus.

Morel mushrooms

When our son, Maj. Chuck Beebe, relocated to Iowa with the Air Force he found the locals had the same enthusiasm for hunting wild game as the folks back home but they also take their mushroom hunting just as serious. Chuck's neighbor, a mushroom hunter that works for the Omaha newspaper, posted this photo of Chuck with his prized find of morel mushrooms.



Please contact me if you need any morel mushrooms removed from your property.