The Gardens at Melissa Majora - a Honeybee Sanctuary: mushrooms

Monday, May 4, 2015

Treasure!

I am checking out the crabapple bed to see which (if any) last year's newly planted perennials are coming up.

One astilbe doing well, the other, not so much. The June hostas are okay. And while the Japanese painted fern in front of the front bay window is going gangbusters, the 2 in the crab bed barely register. (So much so that I trample down one of the clumps. *whine*)

But then I spy something - odd. What are these? Some kind of fungus to be sure. I think at first they might be 'stink horns', but no. Really different.

Maybe tiny cooling towers for itty bitty nuclear power plants? Dunno.

I step back and see if I can salvage the trampled fern. And lo! There. Beside the fern - the source of the hollow towers.

A morel mushroom! I brush aside more leaves and hey! Another!

Are they around the ferns? I check the other clump of Japanese painted and yep! More morels. I count 4 right now (and the twin towers).

Now I KNOW they are morels. They look like morels. They are the same as ones I find on the web. Where did they come from? Why here? Why now?

And why am I too darn chicken to pick them to eat? What would you do? LOL

Bottom line - bigfoot here is keeping out of the beds and watching from the sidelines from now on!