Mushrooms make appearance around town
Posted on Tuesday, September 26, 2006
As area residents left for work Monday morning, they may have noticed a foray of mushrooms poking through the ground.
"I noticed them when I was getting my paper this morning," said Fayetteville resident Dillon Remphrey. "I had never seen so many at one time. My dog was trying to eat them, but I was afraid they might be poisonous."
While some mushrooms can be poisonous to humans, amateur Mycologist Jay Justice said many animals can tolerate poisonous mushrooms without getting sick.
"A lot of times they grow in fairy rings or semi fairy rings," he said. "The gills will be pure white when they're young, but over time, they'll turn to a greenish gray color, which means they're poisonous. It can cause gastrointestinal problems for some people, but many animals can eat poisonous mushrooms without getting sick."
According to Justice, a fairy ring, also known as a pixie ring, is a naturally occurring ring or arc of mushrooms that appear in grassy areas during spring and fall, typically after a period of heavy rainfall. The ring will appear as either a dark green or brown circular band ranging in size from a few inches to 50 feet in diameter. The fairy ring fungus grows outward from a central point at a rate varying from a few inches to as much as several feet per year.
Justice, who serves as president of the Arkansas Mycological Society, is also a member of the North American Mycological Association and the Mycological Society of America.
Known as the "mushroom affect," Justice said mushroom patches usually develop under specific weather conditions.
"They need moisture," he said. "Many times, there will be an initial rain and the mushrooms will sit there in a compressed state. The rain just causes them to elongate. The mushroom affect generally occurs after a second rain."
Though mushroom patches can surface overnight, Justice said their life span is typically brief.
"It depends how hot it is," he said. "In the summertime, they usually go pretty quick. The heat will dry them out and the bugs will eat them. If it's really windy, the mushrooms will also dry out a lot faster."
Justice said nearly 5, 000 types of mushrooms exist in Arkansas.
"We have a combination of eastern and southern mushrooms," he said. "It's interesting, depending what part of the country you go to. There are some in Arkansas that we won't see any further north. We may be the southern extension of some northern species. After 20 years of collecting mushrooms, I'm still making a list of our observations."
Justice will host a mushroom workshop at Devil's Den on Oct. 8. Admission is free and events include an interpretive walk at 10 a.m. to view mushrooms in their natural habitat, followed by a lecture on cooking with wild mushrooms. A slide show entitled "Edible and Poisonous Mushrooms of Arkansas"will be featured at 2 p.m.
FEEDBACK:
Something to say about this topic? Submit a Letter to the Editor online
