Mushroom Gills

I’m not much good when it comes to identifying mushrooms. I’m also not particularly interested in trying. I don’t know about my brothers but the memory of “the night of the mushrooms” still affects me, I think.

Dad used to pick mushrooms on the lawn at NIH where he worked and mom would use them in her cooking. Dad had identified them as safe and we ate them many times without any problem (so it wasn’t the mushrooms’ fault). One day he got to work and the grounds crew was mowing the grass. Since that would chop off the mushrooms, he picked them in the morning and kept them in a fridge at work. We never found out what happened, really, but have always assumed that the lawn had been sprayed with something before the mowers came. That night, after eating the mushrooms as part of our dinner, we all spent pretty much the whole night throwing up. It isn’t something you easily forget. I think most of us were a little put off mushrooms for a while. I’ve gotten over that, but eating wild-picked mushrooms, particularly those growing in cultivated lawns, is still something I’m hesitant to do.

In any case, this large mushroom, probably 5 inches across, came up over the site of one of the trees that was in our back yard. It looks like the squirrels have been nibbling on the edge of it. They are welcome to it. I’ll stick to store-bought chanterelles, porcini, morels, and shiitake (although I did grow my own shiitake mushrooms for a while).

Lonicera maackii

These are along the edge of the woods behind my building, next to where I park most days. I’ve been meaning to take pictures of them for a week or so but I’ve been busy at work and by the time I leave, I just want to leave. Today I made the effort and here you are. This is Lonicera maackii, the Amur or Bush Honeysuckle. It is an invasive species and is fairly common in the Eastern United States (and in one county in Oregon, according to the USDA). In general I’d recommend pulling it up anywhere you find it. I do like the red berries, though, that come out this time of year (but they are poisonous, so don’t try eating them).

Rose ‘Jaune Desprez’

With the cooler temperatures, our roses have all decided it would be fun to bloom a bit, so we have quite a few flowers opening. It isn’t anything like the first spring flush, but it’s a nice autumnal bonus. This rose is called ‘Jaune Desprez’, a Noisette bred by Jean Desprez in France in 1835. No one is going to rely on me for French translation but ‘Jaune’ is ‘yellow’. It is a vigerous, climbing rose growing on our back fence and while it doesn’t bloom heavily all summer, it does have at least a few flowers on it most of the year.

Maple Leaf

We have fewer trees in our yard than we did even six months ago, to say nothing of when we moved in. There are still two rather ratty maple trees of the five that were in the back yard when we moved here. The three that are gone were considerably larger. Two of the three large oaks along the front are still here. The middle of those oaks, which all belong to the county, was nearly dead and we had them come cut it down. Because of that, this promises to be the lightest raking year we’ve had since we bought our first house in 1993.

The leaves are starting to turn as they days have been cool and pleasant. This leaf isn’t as red as some but I like the way the light shines through it, lighting up the colors and giving them real life. Fall is certainly a pretty time of year and I’m quite looking forward to it.

Sticking to my theme of approaching autumn, there are a few autumn crocuses blooming in our yard. They were planted along the edge of the pachysandra in front of our sidewalk but it has spread a bit and now they are a bit engulfed. They’re not really tall enough for that spot. Also, something has been nibbling on the petals. While Colchicum is extremely poisonous to us, it doesn’t bother slugs in the least.

Black-eyed Susans

I posted a picture of a drying out black-eyed Susan the other day and you get treated to another today. This really captures the feel of our back yard right now. There is still significant color but it’s starting to change from bright yellow, pink, and purple to brown. It’s actually a very pretty time of year, especially as the leaves begin to change to brighter colors, before making their final transition to brown themselves. It’s been cool and wonderful, just as it should.

Yellow Flowers

On Muncaster Mill Road, between Magruder High School and where it crosses the ICC and between those two roads there is a field of yellow flowers. I assume someone planted them but it isn’t clear who would have done so. I’ve driven past it many times over the years and finally decided to stop today and take some pictures. I’m not sure what sort of flowers they are but they are quite pretty, particularly en masse. Getting a photograph that conveys that was a bit difficult because once you are out in them, they are tall enough that you cannot see them all. Also, I tried to keep the highway out of the picture.

Drying Black-eyed Susan

The black-eyed Susans are fading, as I mentioned two weeks ago. They still have a fair amount of color but are starting to dry up. Personally, I think they still look pretty nice in their semi-dried out state. This is one in a large patch growing in the middle of our back yard. There was a small patch here last year but with the two trees that used to shade it now gone, the patch has become very vigorous. I’m not sure what we’ll do there next year, but it seems like a good spot for some sun-loving things. More roses, perhaps.