delightful sprouting of mushrooms on the way to and in the park the last couple of days. Meema beat me to the first reporting of this invasion in the Ditmas Park ( http://ditmasparkblog.com/green/fungus-among-us#disqus_thread ) Blog - nice going, Meema! I thought I'd post my pictures anyway, since I love the way they're in so many places. Actually, they seem very ghost-like to me, since I'm sure they are growing on the roots of the treese that were planted 100 years ago when this neighborhood was built.
Besides the usual big white mushrooms, we saw some long pinky/orange ones in the Peninsula. Did some research. I believe they are Mutinus elegans [elegant stinkhorn!]. What a great name!
They could also be mutinus ravenelli, not such an interesting translation. I think it's someone's name. It's also called the Devil's Dipstick, which sounds more like a rock band than a mushroom to me. We'll keep an eye on them, because I think they'll develop a kind of disgusting gray slimy bit at the top, which provides the spore and gets eaten by bugs. But right now they look so pretty!
They are also described as "edible in egg form but not recommended." Give my imagination a lot to work on.
The new swan family has completely moved to the big lake, at the beach. They've chased last year's three cygnets over behind the Peninsula. Seems there's not much connection between each group of siblings in the swan world.
Do you think all the mushrooms sprouted because of that crazy rain last week? If so, and that hurricane makes it up this weekend, imagine what we'll see next week!
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