Wednesday, January 12, 2011

Toadstools.

You may recall from a few weeks ago that we've been trimming back the trees on the property.  The various twigs, branches and leaves were processed with a chipper and the resultant chippings distributed around the garden.

As it happens, we generated rather more "mulch" than we had placed to put it, so some of the chippings remain in a pile for distribution later.  What has happened to this pile intrigues me.

It's been quite dry and the mulch has been sitting on concrete.  we've had the occasional shower, but really not much rain at all.  Nevertheless we now have toadstools appearing in the mulch. Even more surprising is that they have a hint of blue to them too.  I've seen toadstools of a similar shape to these before, but don't think these are quite the same.  I thought the other sort were a type of ink cap, and these new arrivals seem quite different.

I had always thought there was a large underground chunk of mycelium from which the toadstools grew, so to see these plants springing out of the mulch was not expected at all.
Sadly these little toadstools are at their best just as I'm racing off to work and are not looking their best by the time I get home.  Unfortunately, this is when then photos were taken.

Nevertheless, if you're a mycologist, or just someone who knows what these toadstools are called, perhaps leave me a comment?

No comments:

Post a Comment