James
Harrell has mailed me this information as to what type of fungi these are.
I'm writing in answer to your fungi photos... the mushroom on the left is what is commonly
known as an earthstar. It rises very early in the morning after a good rain and
plenty of humidity... appears as a small ball with slits that dries and turns itself
outward breaking at these slits to form the star shape you see . Often slimey in the
centre this strange mushroom drips liquid with spores to produce more where other types of
mushrooms usually drop them from the gills under their cap. The second mushroom,
that is, on the right is what is known as a stinkhorn... if you found this mushroom
early in the day as I suspect from the picture it stunk of dead fish, roadkill or some
other equivalent... it is common in planted areas and more often near non-native soils.
Just thought you might like to know about these interesting little guys... and
don't worry they are naturally good for the soil in that they break down many organic
garbage into great stuff that can be used immediately by your
plants... the mushrooms we see are the "fruit" of a much larger "tree"
that is never seen underground... this "tree" or mycellium silently breaks down
the soil to a useable level all the while aerating the soil.
that's it from here in Texas: James Harrell (jharrell@tcac.com
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