Stalking mushrooms

Friday, 4th of August 2023 [82]

Remember my happiness when I found mushrooms growing in my garden last week? Finally I had something to write about for the #FungiFriday community by @ewkaw .

Looks like those mushrooms heard my cries and decided to show their heads in the most unexpected places these days, just so I can capture them and share with you guys 😁

First one was not really such a huge surprise. What’s more surprising is that I haven’t found mushrooms in this place before!

I walk in The Common a lot. Although it’s a park in the middle of the city, a huge chunk of it is an old forest. And lots of paved footpaths in between. I admit that I rarely go off the paved paths when I walk here.

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This time round I walked with a friend and we went in a wrong direction and as we took a shortcut back through dirt path, I saw the striking white flesh amongst brown forest floor.

My friend was surprised that I noticed them from such a distance. She said she would never notice them if I didn’t point them, but then she suddenly saw more of them. Not one in its full form though. Some were eating by some hungry bugs, while others were laying on their side, probably kicked by someone.

Mushrooms nonetheless, hey? And some pretty gills on show too.

I feel like they’re calling me.

‘Time to visit the forest!’ they say 😉

Second place was much more surprising.

‘Why?’ you ask?

For 2 reasons really.

Firstly, because I walk there every day at lunch and I’ve never ever noticed them before.

Or were they not there?

Nah, they must have been there for a while already. Look at the size of this guy!

He needed good few days to get to this size and there were quite a few of them growing in a fairy circle around the little grass/bush area by the road.

This part of my walk is usually the fastest, as walking by the noisy road is not my favourite, so I walk faster to get it out of the way.

Which leads me to the second reason why I found it surprising to see mushrooms here. It’s literally by the busy road and not even a tree around - just some bushes and a bit of grass.

And empty beer cans!

Lots of cans and lots of mushrooms 🤷🏻‍♀️

Those fungi didn’t seem to care about growing in the rough neighbourhood. They found themself a corner to thrive and thrive they do.

Someone probably droped a few spores on their way back home from the forest and here we go. I have some mushrooms to photograph again.

Taking the proximity to the road into account I wouldn’t pick these to eat, but they were actually type of Boletus mushrooms and most likely edible too.

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It goes to show that those sneaky fungi can grow pretty much anywhere where there is a little ground and a lot of rain for them.

Also that they read my posts on hive and then show up in my life taking me by surprise 😉

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They showed in one more place recently, but about this I wil tell you next week. I don’t wanna be all greedy again and throw all my fungi captures into one post, like I did before. There are many more Fridays to come!

Happy #FungiFriday!

Until next time 💙

Camera:	iPhone11
Photographer:	@fantagira