Friday, September 4, 2009

 
These gorgeous mushrooms were growing from the side of a tree along a busy city street in the town where I work. I spotted them on my way home and did not have my camera with me (When will I learn). I drove 15 miles home, and asked Joey if he wanted to take a road trip with me. He of course wanted to know where, and when I told him I needed to go back into town and get some pictures of some cool mushrooms that I spotted on my way home. He of course thought I was nuts, but he agreed to ride along. I had never seen anything quite like these before, they were growing up the side of the tree like stair steps. Their flesh was very bright white, and they had gorgeous "gills" on the underside. While I was busy snapping photos, a couple out for an evening walk stopped and hollered from across the street "If you hadn't of been taking pictures, we would have never noticed them". 
It just goes to show that each of us should slow down and look at what is around us, you never know just exactly what you will discover. 

6 comments:

  1. Goodness! Those are amazing. The poor tree has those mycillium threaded through the bark and probably vascular system. I wonder how harmful they are to the tree.

    Beautiful mushrooms though!

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  2. I'm not sure if they would harm the tree or not. Mushrooms tend to favor moist, rotting wood, so it makes me wonder if the tree is already in some kind of decline. There is a lot of moss on the tree with the mushrooms, so there must be significant moisture on that side of the tree. I had just never seen anything quite like them before. Thanx for your kind compliments.

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  3. It sounds like it is a bad thing for the tree that the mushrooms are present. The mushrooms are beautiful though. I love the picture of the "gills". We have had tons of mushrooms in the yard this year, NOT morels which was a great disappointment to CH. But the Old Man has been feasting on the mushrooms happily. We have been seeing lots of fungus-ie kind of things.

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  4. I am completely fascinated by mushrooms. I am constantly amazed at their gone today, here tomorrow appearances. The diversity of colors, shapes, and sizes. I often roam through the woods just looking for them. They make great subjects to photograph.
    I'm almost certain that this tree must already been sick, for the mushrooms to have showed up like that.

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  5. Dear Shelly,

    We understand your passion for mushrooms! There are so many colors, shapes, textures, and scents -- as well as tastes, if one is daring enough to try the edibles! We've been searching for Maitake (Grifola frondosa), a particularly delicious fungus, but so far to no avail.

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  6. I go GAGA over mushrooms. My family teases me about it. If I see one, anywhere, I make my husband stop the car so I can investigate. I walk through the woods regularly to try and find unique ones. I've been told the puffballs come out this month in Missouri, so I am on a mission to find one. I too am not brave enough to try most mushrooms, I have developed the attitude "you first" then if you don't croak I will try it...LOL

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