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The heavy late fall rains last week brought on an enormous flush
of mushrooms on Toby’s Prairie, and to a lesser extent on the Pocket Prairie.
Amanda and Susan discovered them while seed collecting. The species was Agaricus campestris, common name “meadow mushroom”, which is
closely related to the cultivated species (A.
bisporus).
circles called “fairy rings”on lawns, golf courses, or meadows. Despite the
literature, there is nothing mystical or mythical about a fairy ring. It is
just a growth phenomenon. The mushroom mycelium grows out from a single center
(probably starting from a single spore), growing on the rich organic matter of
the lawn or prairie. It may grow for quite
a while in this vegetative state, but generally in response to a good rain (we
had 1.5 inches last week) it undergoes morphogenesis and forms fruiting bodies
at the periphery of the ring.
 |
| Part of a “line” of mushrooms, a fragment of a fairy ri |
it is on a lawn. Also, sometimes a complete ring is not formed, only parts of a
ring (arcs), and this is what we have in Toby’s Prairie. The photo here shows an example.
is the first time we have seen such an enormous flush. The mushroom is a
saprophyte, which means it grows on dead plant material. Because of the impact of the drought, there is a lot of
mushroom food on the surface of the soil, and fruiting was brought about by the
good fall rains.
prairie. The extensive mycelium that it forms on the surface of the soil will
eventually die and become incorporated into the rich organic humus that a prairie
makes.
