... if you keep your eyes open.
Seen by the side of the street, today:
What was that? Leftover Easter eggs? I had passed them already when I realized; 'shrooms! I did a U-turn on a side street, and went back.
The grass beside the sidewalk was full of them, big mushrooms, up to the size and shape of a goose egg, singly and in clumps.
I could identify them immediately as Coprinus, "Inky Caps", because a fair number were turning into a dribble of blue-black goo at the edges. They weren't Shaggy Mane, Coprinus comatus, which I am familiar with, but slightly different, with just a hint of shagginess.
A close-up; see how they deliquesce, oozing down into the grass.
One had been stepped on; I brought it home to show Laurie. It smelled wonderful, like the smell of the piney woods I hiked in up north, nutty and sweet. The intact buttons would have been edible*, but they were just too beautiful to harvest.
*In case you are ever tempted to try them, pick only the intact mushrooms, cook them quickly, and (very important) take no alcohol with them, nor for the next 3 days, since they interfere with the metabolism of alcohol, making it extremely toxic.
Last week, along our street, Laurie saw this:
... put out as a "freebie" beside a pile of spring clean-up leftovers.
Tomorrow; who knows? We'll be pleasantly surprised. Again.
Nature notes and photos from BC, Canada, mostly in the Lower Fraser Valley, Bella Coola, and Vancouver Island.
Saturday, May 05, 2007
1 comment:
I'm having to moderate all comments because Blogger seems to have a problem notifying me. Sorry about that. I will review them several times daily, though, until this issue is fixed.
Also, I have word verification on, because I found out that not only do I get spam without it, but it gets passed on to anyone commenting in that thread. Not cool!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
more icky ink-cap goo! Love your pic of goo in action! ;0)
ReplyDelete