we were out walking along the sandy coast checking out the grassy areas to see if we could get lucky and find some champignons. the summer has been unusually dry and there hasn't been much of interest up until now but you never know what you may find if you take the time and effort to look. well it didn't take long to find this unusual fungi growing in the grass, the likes of which i have never seen before, almost like flower petals
they were big, some huge and all different shapes, several were fan shaped
some were funnel shaped
and some were just blobs
the gills were abundant and about the same color as the caps. unfortunately most were old and decaying
but there were some younger ones as well. i wish we had been there a week before but it has been so dry we thought it useless to try.
i have an identification app and it suggested Aspropaxillus giganteus giant leucopax or giant funnel which made sense because of the sheer size, color and gills and some were funnel shaped
if correct that would be cool because the young ones are edible. only thing is the older ones develop cyanide, and that would not be so cool to eat. so we took only photos and left them to do their saprobic thing. that's just a scientific term for organisms feeding on dead organic matter in low oxygen environments.
when i got home i did a little digging to find out more about these fascinating fungi. i used the same app with different pics and got completely different suggestions, none of which could be correct. meanwhile the Aspropaxillus giganteus seems to prefer wet environments and this place was definitely quite dry. also nowhere was it mentioned anything other than funnel shapes which only a few of these had.
there was one local reference that mentioned there were 5 very similar species all with the same scientific name.
possibly these are some rare species that only grow close to the sea but it's more likely that the data bases that the id apps reference are not complete. whatever the name, it was a very fun surprise to find these amazing flowery mushrooms growing in the grass by the sea
if anybody knows more about these fungi i would be glad to hear it.
i'll be back here again soon to see how they develop.
