New unusual mushrooms have appeared in my garden!

 

Yesterday dad called me to come quickly into the garden, with my camera, to see what he had discovered under the trees, near the shed. 

I was really surprised to see a clump of large white mushrooms, which are about 20 cm to 25 cm tall, surrounded by younger small ones. They were happily growing in the damp decomposed leaf litter. 

The weather here in Auckland has been very wet and warm this spring, quite often around 19 C to 21 C during the day, which must be ideal for these mushrooms to grow here.

The mushrooms are huge. I had no idea what kind they were. So after taking some photos I ran back inside to search the internet for a name.

I wasn't quite sure from my photos what the mushrooms were called because they hadn't opened up and I didn't know if these were fully mature or not.

Then early this morning, before it started to rain, I went back to the mushroom patch to discover that 2 had opened up at the bottom and had a lip of black curled up around the bottom of the cap.

After my search on the internet, I found that these mushrooms may be the commonly called shaggy ink caps, shaggy mane or lawyer's wigs (depending on which country you are in), with the scientific name of coprinus comatus. Though I may be wrong. (No matter what the these mushrooms are I will not be eating them!!!)

I wonder what surprises my garden will give me next month!

Do you have any idea if I am correct in my identification? 

I hope your weekend goes well and that you have some pleasant surprises too.

Hugs, Rose x

It's bright red and spotty all over!

The fly agaric mushrooms, amanita muscaria, have opened up at last underneath our chestnut tree. It all looks very autumnal with the chestnuts and brown leaves scattered amongst them on the ground.

You can now see the white gills underneath the mushrooms and the remnants of the veil (the white frilly bit on the stem).

The warty white spots, dotted over the red, were once part of the veil that covered the whole mushroom.

Slugs have had a great time munching on the mushrooms leaving big gaping holes. But don't be fooled, these mushrooms are highly poisonous to humans.

I went for a walk in the light drizzling rain this afternoon to take these last two photos. The cloudy weather and water have made the colours in the mushrooms really pop out.

The mushrooms look like they could have come out of a fairytale. All we need are some little elves and goblins in the photos!

I am getting happier all the time with my new cell-phone camera. It is much better and easier to use than my old camera. I can now take clear close-up photos. Big smiles :)

Hugs

Rose x