Thanks. I was just about to go out and take a picture of the underneath, when the heavens opened! I’ll wait until it stops. We are forecast a thunderstorm this afternoon.
You might have fairies in the garden. It could be the start of a fairy circle.
If there were any, I’ll bet the owls have eaten them! I should look around for any discarded wings - although we often see dragonflies in the garden, so they might be theirs. We did have a thunderstorm, not for very long but it’s still raining. I’ll get out tomorrow to get a picture.
That makes a difference, definitely not clustered domecap but possibly honey fungus. The yellow ring on the stem is a distinguising feature for honey fungus, I didn't spot it on your earlier photos. The cap can be very variable, often scaly especially when young but sometimes smooth like yours.
Not very recently, but we did have a younger silver birch nearby that fell down a few years ago. It’s trunk was about 18 inches across, and it appeared to have rotted at ground level. There is still a fragment of stump in the ground. No fungi visible near it though. Is there anything I should be doing? The clumps of fungi lead in a straight line from a very big mature silver birch. Might the fungus have infected a root?
You could check the mature birch, look for black bootlace rhizomorphs underneath any loose bark. Try digging up a clump of the fruiting bodies, again looking for those black bootlaces. Unfortunately if you find them there is nothing you can do but let nature take its course, there is no treatment available.
Just been searching some websites, and it’s not very reassuring. I’ll take a look at the birch tree when I get a chance. Do you think there is any point collecting up the toadstools and getting rid of them in the rubbish bin, to prevent spores spreading? Or is most of the spread below ground level?
Almost all of the spread is below ground, it doesn't reproduce from spores very readily so removing the fruiting bodies won't make any difference. It is thought that the largest living organism on earth is a honey fungus mycelium in North America which covers several square miles and could be a couple of thousand years old.
I do hope we don’t have a gigantic underground mat of the stuff! I’ll just leave the toadstools there, they are not unattractive. I’ll take a closer look at the tree sometime, and just monitor the situation. Thanks, @steephill. I was hoping that we might have found some collared earthstars this year. I have found them once in the garden and hoped that they would reappear annually. No such luck, honey fungus instead!
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We did have a thunderstorm, not for very long but it’s still raining. I’ll get out tomorrow to get a picture.
Is there anything I should be doing? The clumps of fungi lead in a straight line from a very big mature silver birch. Might the fungus have infected a root?
Thanks, @steephill.
I was hoping that we might have found some collared earthstars this year. I have found them once in the garden and hoped that they would reappear annually. No such luck, honey fungus instead!