Friday, May 7, 2010

Bye-Bye Shrooms!

A couple weeks ago I walked outside and found several dozen mushrooms in the mulch/pine needles around one of our trees. I was really worried because that tree sustained a lot of damage during our snow storms last year and I was worried that maybe this was an early clue that it had died.

Then they started popping up everywhere! Here's a big collection near my compost bin:

I think maybe they sprouted from fungi that were in the mulch I bought last year from the city.

Then, while I was wondering what - if anything - to do about them, they dried up and shriveled away during our heat wave last weekend. How fun! I wonder if they will come back?


  1. I heard that if you see a bunch of little stands of mushrooms in one yard, even if they are in different places, they are likely all part of the same mushroom organism. I am not sure if that means they work like the Borg or if they work like grass with runners.

  2. You may be right, Matty. I read a really interesting book this year called "Teaming with Microbes" that said fungi spread hyphae over large distances in the soil and can help local plant life by bringing in water and nutrients from other areas, effectively increasing the root-span of your plants, trees, etc.