100 Species #92: Ringless honey mushroom
These ringless honey mushrooms Armillaria tabescens exploded out of the front area, where the big stump is (that the oysters popped out of) and also in a couple random spots by the driveway.
Honey mushrooms are the reproductive bodies of a fungus that attacks the roots of living trees, especially oaks. The mycelium will continue to feed on the roots and produce mushrooms long after the above ground part of the tree is only a memory. There are at least 14 species of honey mushroom recognized, with various combinations of different attributes and field markings, with some intergradation between most of them. Armillaria tabescens is unique in that there is no ring on the stalk--a feature which when present, is the remnant of a veil that protected the spore-bearing surface when the mushroom was new.
I found a half dozen different clusters of this mushroom in the front area, some of which had caps just a few millimeter across, but most were three to five centimeters across. When the first cluster came up I was very excited, but I decided to wait until it was more mature to get a good photograph. I waited too long.
One day they were like this...
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v165/cottonmanifesto/2011%20jef/dedham09151102.jpg
The next day like this.
Well, at least someone is enjoying them!