Personally I would remove it as it will spread by releasing spores in a dust-like cloud. Maybe put a bag over it and pinch it off at ground level. It should come away easily.
Personally I would remove it as it will spread by releasing spores in a dust-like cloud. Maybe put a bag over it and pinch it off at ground level. It should come away easily.
There is no point in doing that - the spores will be everywhere already and it is a thing of natural beauty and does no harm to anything or anyone. Underground the hyphae (like plant roots) are decomposing organic matter and providing nutrients for plants. I'd welcome it in my garden. The fungus lives underground and what we see is just the fruit. It will disappear as quickly as it appeared - enjoy its ethereal beauty while it lasts.
Billericay - Essex
Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit. Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.
Fair enough. 🙂 I wasn't suggesting rooting around underground. As you say, fungi are everywhere in the subterranean world, doing a great job. And the fruiting bodies are beautiful, I agree.
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So delicate and so beautiful
Billericay - Essex
Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit.
Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.
The fungus lives underground and what we see is just the fruit.
It will disappear as quickly as it appeared - enjoy its ethereal beauty while it lasts.
Billericay - Essex
Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit.
Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.
The blades of grass are poking through it though, which makes me think it’s a form of slime mold maybe, rather than a solid mushroom?
Yours is a fungi. Mushrooms are but 1 type of fungus.
Slime moulds can be even more beautiful (and also completely harmless)
https://www.barrywebbimages.co.uk/Images/Macro/Slime-Moulds-Myxomycetes/
Billericay - Essex
Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit.
Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.