280 days of Urbpandemonium #45

[urbpan]

The first really "mushroomy" mushroom of the year is this one: shaped like an umbrella, yellowish-white stalk, purplish cap, thick and robust and sprouting from wood chips.


The partial veil that protected the lilac gills when the mushroom was young persists on the stalk as a rough ring. In age, the cap goes from incurved and bell-shaped to convex, to allow spores at the center of the gills to get free.


Pulled out of the substrate, the mushroom brings along its rhizomorph (root-like) mycelium). The fungus feeds on fecal coliform bacteria, and catches nematodes, as well as breaking down wood chips for energy. This species Stropharia rugoso-annulata* is a European native that lives in North America only in human-made environments: mulch beds, gardens, and wood-chipped pathways.


*"Stropharia" refers to a sword belt--a reference to the partial veil remnant on the stalk. "rugoso-annulata" means "rough-ringed," which refers to the same field marking.