Lately many people have mushrooms popping up in their yards, after a spell of rainy weather after a dry summer. Some of them grow individually, others in circles or rings. These rings of mushrooms show up suddenly and mysteriously. Many kinds of mushrooms grow in rings. Some are complete circles, some are incomplete arcs, while others are oval shaped. These circles are called fairy rings. It’s easy to imagine fairies dancing in the moonlight inside the ring or holding a secret midnight meeting perched on tiny mushroom chairs.
A species of mushroom, which goes by the common name “fairy ring,” popped up in my rock garden a week or so ago. It had a distinctive caramel color to its cap, with a distinctive bump in the center called an umbo. Turning the cap over I noticed the gills were rather coarse and well-spaced apart compared to other mushrooms. The stem was thin and woody.
Why do mushrooms grow in circles? What we call the “mushroom” is the fruiting body or reproductive part of the fungus. The cap of a mushroom has gills on its underside (image above right), which produce thousands of microscopic spores. When the spores land on a suitable surface, they germinate and send out tiny white, threadlike filaments. These filaments secrete enzymes to break down the soil and nourish the growing fungus. This network of threads, called the mycelium, grows underground or in rotting wood, and over time it produces the fruit we see above ground that we call the mushroom (image below).
The mycelium that produced the fruit dies because it has used up the nutrients in the soil, but the outer edges of the mycelium network continue to spread and grow. Thereafter, the fruiting bodies appear only along the outside edges of the mycelium, and the result is the characteristic circle. Even when the mushroom caps are not visible above ground, the ring can be visible as a ring of grass that can be brighter green — or it can be a dead brown area where the grass temporarily dies back. These discolored rings in the grass add to the mystery of fairy rings.
In Europe, fairy ring mushrooms are a delicacy. Most people discard the stem, which is woody and unappetizing, and then string the caps together and dry them rather than freezing them. They can be reconstituted in soups and stews and have a pleasant nutty flavor, according to those who eat them. I have never tried eating fairy ring mushrooms, even though I can identify them easily. Several other similar little brown mushrooms (mushroom lovers call them LBMs) can be mistaken for fairy rings, and many poisonous mushrooms also grow in rings. An avid mushroom enthusiast, I still rely heavily on field guides for correct identification of every species.
Wild mushrooms vary in appearance and in condition. Some are edible and choice, others may be consumed but aren’t very palatable. Eating certain species can make you sick or cause hallucinations. Some mushrooms are so poisonous that you could die within hours after consuming a tiny piece. So, if you want to eat mushrooms safely, buy them at a farm market or grocery store.
Anybody can enhance their enjoyment of the outdoors by learning about mushrooms. Children find them irresistible. They can be appreciated as a decorative bonus to a hike, or when they appear in your yard or garden. Buy a field guide, use the internet, and learn about mushrooms. Read stories about them, take pictures, sketch or paint them. But don’t eat them.
Doug Pifer is an artist, naturalist, and writer. He has a Master’s Degree in Journalism from Penn State and has been an editor and art educator. His illustrations have appeared in various books and magazines and he has been a contributor to The Observer for several years. He lives with his wife and assorted animals on 5.7 acres in a historic farmhouse near Shepherdstown, West Virginia.
