Found a fungus on my lawn

[ann_leckie]

04-10-10_0857.jpeg
Originally uploaded by hautdesert

Is this mushroom what I think it is? Anybody know? i don't know from mushrooms, really, but this is a pretty distinctive one--and not one I ever expected to see next to my front sidewalk.

Comments

[chomiji]

Are you thinking that it's a morel? The article at the link says they're not uncommon.

[ann-leckie.livejournal.com]

I am indeed thinking morel. They're quite common around here--like, out in the woods. I've never actually seen one growing, and was astonished to see one in my own lawn.

[eljaydaly.livejournal.com]

Looks like a morel to me. Are you thinking morel? Or are you thinking something exciting like a truffle? I don't know what a truffle looks like, but I've seen morels. (Actually, thinking about it, truffles are underground, aren't they? I'm a peasant. I don't know from exotic stuff!)

[ann-leckie.livejournal.com]

I was thinking morel--which would be kind of exciting. I mean, I know they're common, and I know they grow around this time of year, but I've never actually seen one growing, much less on my own front lawn. I looked at it and said, "Holy cow, I think that's an actual edible morel!" but I am a coward when it comes to wild mushrooms and probably will not eat it.

I hear about them growing around here, but it's always, like, in the woods somewhere.

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

If it is a morel--and I don't know of any other mushroom that looks like that (except a false morel, but there are ways of telling them apart--see, for instance, this page)--they're delicious! You are lucky.

Do you have apple trees nearby? Morels are apparently common in old apple orchards.

[ann-leckie.livejournal.com]

No apple tree! Just a half-crabgrass front lawn on a busy street! This is what baffles me. I always hear about things like old apple orchards or woods or whatever, so here I see this thing peeking up at me--actually, my daughter nearly stepped on it this morning--and went "huh...wha...that can't be..."

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

I would be mighty tempted to cook it up--after/if I satisfied myself it wasn't a false morel. Sure does look like a morel to me...

After one unpleasant incident where I misidentified a mushroom, I try only to eat mushrooms that cannot be mistaken for things that make you sick. Sticking to the ones I feel safe with, we have had some nice mushroom side dishes for things.

[ken-schneyer.livejournal.com]

Looks like a morel to me, but mushroom hunters caution that it's easy to mistake an icky poisonous thingy for a tasty mushroom if you don't know what you're doing.

There are tests such as looking at spores etc., that should allow you to make the determination. When in doubt, find a mushroom hobbyist.

[lunapalma.livejournal.com]

Yes, it does look like a morel, but as the other folks commenting have said, you should, of course, make a positive ID before eating it. And yes, morels and other mushrooms are often affiliated (maybe "pair-bonded" would be a better term) with specific kinds of trees, but you don't always need a whole tree nearby for the mushroom to sprout. A friend of mine who belongs to the Mycological Society of San Francisco was called upon to identify a mushroom that had sprouted alongside a suburban driveway in the peninsula. The mushroom looked like a morel, but out here morels tend to grow in afterburn areas in the Sierras. The mushroom was indeed a morel, which had sprouted from the wood chips that the homeowner had spread alongside of the driveway the previous fall!