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

Autumn treasures in my garden today

This morning I had a lovely walk around the land to see what treasures I could take photos of. I decided to give my cell-phone camera a try with some close ups, and I'm so happy with the results.

The weather started off cloudy, then, shortly afterwards, the sun came out and it was glorious. The temperature is 24 C at the moment, which is great for Autumn here. It feels more like Spring!

Some of the orange red hot poker, kniphofia, flowers are starting to open. Most of them survived the Summer drought that we had. We have only lost one plant as far as I can see.

The stinking iris, iris foetidissima, seed pods are bursting open with their bright red berries.

The ground is covered with prickly chestnut cases. Unfortunately this year the chestnuts inside are tiny and shrivelled, I think due to the drought.

Fly agaric mushrooms, amanita muscaria, are popping up all around the chestnut tree. They are just starting to open. Their creamy white veils are slowly breaking apart as the red mushrooms grow bigger. The veil will form the classic white spots on the red mushrooms.

Our feijoa, acca sellowiana, hasn't fruited well this year. Again I blame the drought for this. And what friut has fallen is quickly gobbled up by greedy pukekoes. (Feijoas are also known as pineapple guavas in some countries).

Japanese anemones, anemone japonica, are flowering by the house showing off their bright pink petals and yellow fluffy stamens.

The snowball viburnum bush, viburnum macrocephallum, has turned a beautiful russet red colour. I can't wait until Spring when it is dressed in its large white pom pom flowers.

The hydrangea flowers have turned a deep purplish pink colour and are looking very pretty.

This is one of our yellow buttercup trees, senna corymbosa, coming into flower. They look lovely when all of the buds have opened. In the background you can see purple tibouchina flowers. The tibouchina bush flowers all year round here and survives our light frosts in Winter.

I had fun walking through the fallen sycamore leaves, crunching them under my feet. They remind me of when I was a child in England when I used to do the same thing!

And finally I discovered that my Jerusalem sage, phlomis russeliana, has survived and is starting to push up its furry green leaves! I planted it a few years ago and am still waiting for it to flower. Hopefully next Spring I will be lucky and be rewarded by seeing yellow whorls of flowers. Fingers crossed.

What time of year is it where you are?

Lots of smiles.

Hugs.

Rose x