Morning colors

Found some large orange mushrooms along my daycare provider's driveway.  The biggest is about 9 inches tall and 7 inches in diameter and surrounded by ground ivy that has turned for fall already.

The big guy

Two small ones hiding under the ivy

Ready to open its top

Tiny twin sugar maple leaves

I love all the colors that sugar maple turn.

Asiatic tiger lily

Asiatic tiger lilies reaching to the sky

Having Fungus in the Yard

In our deep damp forest we grow lots of fungus.  Here are a few around the yard.

Growing up in the yard about 6 inches.

Four inches tall and spreading its top.

These purple mushrooms are growing up from buried stump.

These large mushrooms (4 in diameter) were growing up from my compost pile.

I frequently see these little bright orange mushrooms.  About 1 inch tall; Maple leaf for scale.  

Dog vomit Fungus or scrambled egg fungus is actually not a fungus.  It is a slime mold...a colony of protists.  When conditions are right, it will produce this bright yellow spongy "fruit" of sorts.  Within a day it is orange-brown, soon turning brown and crumbly.  

The slime mold likes to grown on wood chips.  This is the third "batch" I have show up on a pile of wood chips in my driveway that is waiting the mulch a trail in the trees.