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Fungal lifeforms |
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We don't purposely cultivate mushrooms and other fungi in our garden - but I'm
always intrigued to see them, and on this page will share them with you (I'm
so generous, don't you think?)
Behold the comely stinkhorn! The arborvitae in the background are my neighbor's.
He keeps his hedge well mulched, and the stinkhorn fungi love that stuff. In late
summer and early fall, they pop up, look radiant for a few days, and then deflate
to a sad mess. Perfect to keep my two little boys fascinated.
On the other end of the spectrum, not very bold but decidedly dainty, are little
silvery grey lady mushrooms. I don't even bother trying to identify them - I
have enough of a hard time with plants and bugs, for the time being. I've been
told I'd need to make a spore print and have someone in the know look at it.
Who knows, maybe when I got those other lifeforms sorted out...
These demure things were also growing in a heavily mulched garden area (albeit one
that gets a good bit of sun). For what it's worth, the experts tell me this is
a Coprinus species. I'm just glad they chose to play in our garden.
This happy gathering appeared in mid-autumn in our side garden. It's fascinating
how different areas of the garden sprout different mushrooms - I haven't found
the same type in two different places yet.
Little brown things similar to, but not the same as the ones above, growing
in our lane area. According to one helpful GardenWebber, they are probably the
ubiquitous Panaeolus foenisecii, commonly found in lawns.
These marvellous donut-like contraptions were growing right in our front
yard. Can't you just tell that mowing the lawn is my top priority?
 
Two different ones popping out of the mulch in early June. Cute as buttons.
This white fungal mass popped up fairly suddenly in our seedling nursery area
in early August of the wet summer of 2009. Very firm (did not easily yield to
pinching finger pressure). I've not seen it before, and have no idea what it
is.
Visitors to this page have left the following comments| Barbara | Jun 19, 2005 | I have this strange substance in my garden. It happened overnight. It looks like a yellow foam, but more dense than foam. Can you tell me what this is?
Sounds like dog vomit fungus. Take a look at this page and compare. |
| Aaron | Jul 20, 2005 | Very nice pics! Try planting them in the garden next year! www.fungiperfecti.com (one of many sites that sell kits) |
| Nancy | Aug 07, 2005 | Thanks greatly for your slime mold pics and info.... ours just appeared on our mulch ofr the first time last week and I wondered if we had been invaded by aliens! Your info releives my mind...a bit....sounds like the thing to do is lift it off before it matures to spores ... if that might help. Hate to see this all summer - YUK!! |
| Pam | Nov 19, 2005 | Please bear in mind that many fungi are quite toxic--a friend almost lost her dog to one in OR, and we are still thanking Whatever that the kid was not home, since he'll eat anything the dog does.
Just a reminder...your pictures are awesome! :)
Thanks for the reminder, Pam |
| Ken | Jun 15, 2007 | I googled "yellow foam in the garden" and your website showed up. The dog vomit fungus was exactly what I was trying to figure out.
THANK YOU!
|
| Chloe | Jul 10, 2007 | found the exact same in my garden near miscanthus and magnolia - both mulched. good information. i was fearing i was going to need another trip to home depot for more new chemicals. thanks for the info. |
| Donna | Oct 06, 2007 | I have been looking for about a week to find out what is in my garden. Thanks to your site, I found out it is "Stinkhorn" fungus. Thanks for putting my mind at ease! Initially, I thought it was snakes! |
| Sally | Jan 02, 2008 | Not a doctor, but raised by a doctor. Beautiful pictures of so many fungi, but so many fungi are poison to the human liver. Please continue to tell your fans to use gloves and wash very well if you touch fungi or mushrooms. The poison can be very toxic to children and acts quickly. Children should be warned and taught to "look but do not touch". |
| Carol | Mar 24, 2008 | I live in the country near Lodi, Ca. This yellow foam is in my yard were there is only black plastic covered with rock. I used a rock to move it, it then turns red where touched. I had it in the same area last year. Question is, could it be toxic????
Thank You.
Carol
I don't believe so, but don't take my word for it. This page says it's relatively harmless, though. |
| Affie Duggan | Apr 05, 2008 | I have a strange looking fungus growing under my box wood scrub that looks like a freshly peel orange gather with white mushrooms and the mushrooms has orange subatance in the middle, can you tell me what this is. |
| Cynthia | Apr 17, 2008 | Thanks for the wonderful pics. I was so afraid that it was some snake or reptile nesting in the mulch. |
| Heather | Aug 24, 2008 | I have been trying to figure out what's groing at the base of my tree for about three months and since then, It's multiplied. It's yellow, slimy, and hard. When we first found it, I thought it was a mushroom because it was small. Then we tried stepping on it and all that did was make my foot slide off. IT'S AS HARD AS A ROCK. I have a two year old that plays around that tree and don't want her to because I don't know if it's poisonous or how to get rid of it. There's no mulch, but the tree roots do kind of come out of the ground. Thanks. |
| Gloria Perri | Sep 11, 2008 | Are Stinkhorn Fungi poisonous? Ants and flies seem to love them.
I'm not about to go eat one - but as far as I know contact with them is not harmful. |
| David Hittinger | Nov 24, 2008 | It should be noted that many species of mushroom are not deadly poison; many can make you sick if you ingest them but generally it is not fatal and is in fact food poisoning because of eating a rotten one. this goes for people and animals, generally, it is the members of the Amanita family which should be avoided, there are also a few LBM's or little brown mushrooms which are poison, but only two are deadly, one of which is the Lawn gallerenia there are only about five species of deadly ones in North America. None of the mushrooms pictured here as of November 24 2008 are deadly, although the bottom right one looks too close to a gallerenia for comfort. a main concern about the deadly ones is that they will not exhibit physical symptoms for a few days, and when they do it is because they have already destroyed the liver, but generally if you get sick right after ingestion, it is a placebo effect from belief that it is poison, or the fact is only mildly poison. Total, there are about 700 species here in PA, 5 are deadly, about 120 will just make you sick, and the rest are edible and actually quite tasty. |
| rob aptaker | Jan 21, 2009 | The last mushroom on the left at the bottom of the page (growing out of the mulch) is Stropharia Rugosa Annulata -- commonly known as wine cap strophria or the garden giant (because they can reach 5lbs!). The specimen here is a little bit aged and faded. This is a wonderful mushroom for table, but I don't recommend that anyone try to ID this or any mushroom by comparing what you find with just one picture. There are multiple criteria for safe definitive confirmation of a mushroom. |
| Aly & Bill B | Jun 02, 2009 | Holy cow the world wide web is amazing! My husband and I just got this dog vomit fungus in our garden and had no idea what it was or what to do. We typed in "vomit like fungus" and found your site! The explanation was fanyastic! Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge with us! What a blessing!
Try searching for "comely stinkhorn" sometime - that's a real sure shot to find this site! |
| Rob & Andrea | Jun 02, 2009 | Our landlord over-mulched a few weeks ago and we have a nice 2 ft patch of this slime mold. (Aly and Bill- what a coincidence this happened in your garden the same day- by any chance did you use the free much Arlington County provides?) |
| Chris Anderson | Jun 18, 2009 | I Googled "Yellow Foam Fungus". I got your site the first time. Woohoo. I saw this yellow foam in my side yard where I had just Mulched 2 weeks ago. I used the "recycled plastic" bark like looking Mulch. I was a little frighten from this stuff. It looked alien like. I live in Lodi, CA.
Thank you for you pics and info.
I can sleep soundly tonight. |
| renee keihn | Jun 22, 2009 | out of the blue got some o the ever lovin stinkhorn in the two front flower beds....smells like puppy poo!!!!!thanks for the great pic!!! |
| Karen G | Jul 14, 2009 | So wonderful to know that I am not the only one to have this "Yellow Dog Vomit" (as I was calling it, who knew?) appear in their yard. But why this year, 2009? I had the pine mulch put down last spring 2008, nothing grew, and there was red colored whatever mulch down before that, nothing then either, when I first moved to NC in 2006 (and I have never seen this in NY or FL where I spent most of my 57 years). This is the first time this stuff has surfaced since I am here. Is it ALWAYS going to show up from now on or does it die out as the mulch gets older? It is so disgusting, I wanted to have all the mulch removed!!! Does anyone have any more info about this? |
| alan | Jul 27, 2009 | i have a mushroom that fits the description i.e yellow and with a foam like texture but it is a mushroom shaped almost like a field mushroom growing in my back garden, any ideas what this could be? |
| lorra | Nov 04, 2009 | I noticed some slime mould areas on our newly landscaped border this past summer, but they were pure white, as if maybe some white, angelic dogs had barfed. Is this another species, or did I just get lucky?
Most likely a different species. I haven't seen the white kind - you must be special :-) |
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August 10, 2009
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