ABC Wednesday - a Fungus Amungst Us!!

"For Heaven's Sakes!  What in the world??  And what are you doing hanging around my hosta??"

(I'm sure those were my exact words about two weeks ago when I discovered some thick, white, globby stuff growing around on the mulch, all around a hosta's stems...)

I also didn't know what it was, until today.  At lunch with three friends, one of them pulled out her iphone and showed me a picture.  "Know what this is?" she asked.

"No, I don't.  But it was in a flower garden a couple of weeks ago."

"It's Dog Vomit Fungus. (Ugh!)  My daughter found it and looked it up.  It usually starts out yellow, and as it turns white, it gets thick," she said.

"It does!  I was afraid it would hurt my hosta, so I scraped it all up.  It was thick, and gummy, and hard to get out!" I replied.

Here is an excellent link to a site with description and photos.

I didn't take a photo at the time, but I've just now hopped outdoors with my camera.  Forgive these dark, blurry shots... it's getting dark outdoors!  This photo is just part of what I scraped away from my hosta a couple of weeks ago..

Speaking of fungus, look at what I found in the backyard a couple of days ago!!  In doing a little on-line "search and re-search,"  I found what I believe to be Omphalotus commonly known as the Jack O' Lantern mushroom.  According to my reading, these are deadly poisonous, causing difficulty in breathing, a drop in blood pressure, irregular heartbeat and respiratory failure.  They also exhibit bioluminescence by glowing in the dark.

This is "hearsay" only, because by the time I discovered these facts, the fungi were already a few days old and looked more like this

I noticed another type of fungus outdoors this morning.  I've seen these before, but not for a couple of years.  These are Mutinus caninus stinkhorns.  They are odorous (stinky) but loved by flies and other insects!  This is a link that will show you what they look like after they "sprout."

And this is what they looked like a few hours ago. 

Frankly Friends,
these are most of the Fungus that I've noticed Amungst us!  :-)

SG

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