Lawn 'shrooms

[AZRedhawk44]

This winter, my lawn was suffering from an iron deficiency.

I gave it some ironite.  Grass was very happy.

I had half a bag of ironite left in the garage, next to various other fertilizers, pesticides and other fun lawn/garden/household stuff.

When I'm gone on my motorcycle trip and my brother is watching my house, he doesn't realize it's pretty common for winter and spring grasses to die off once the temps start knocking at triple digits, and for the summer bermuda to resume dominance.  This is usually indicated by a period of lawn browning, in May, in AZ.  Give it a couple weeks and increase the water to the lawn, and things are fine.

He means well, but panics.  And instead of buying a relatively harmless lawn fertilizer, he looks through what I have in the garage and decides to throw down a bunch more ironite.

I can tell from the way the grass is growing, that he didn't use the spreader, and just kinda half-arsed it by throwing it or spreading it by hand or shaking it out of the bag or something.  There's wild patches where the grass that should be dormant is going gangbuster nuts.

And in the middle of those wild patches of low temperature climate grasses, reacting to the dramatic increase in iron and water... are GIGANTIC mushrooms.  I wish I took pictures of them, but I shoveled them up and threw them in the yard waste bin.  No stalk as far as I could tell.  I giant sheet of white pasty moldy 'shroom.  Almost like someone smeared a 2" thick sheet of bacon grease into my lawn.  Each place where this would happen was about a foot wide by 2-3 feet long.

So, I need to make sure I cut the lawn shorter for the next month or so and let the spores that remain get lots of sunlight to burn up and die.

Anyone know what kind of mushroom or fungus this was, by the description?

[AZRedhawk44]

Closest thing I can find is this:

http://hencam.com/henblog/2012/09/giant-lawn-marshmallow/

Puffball mushroom.  But mine aren't as tall, and are not as styrofoam-ish in consistency like this picture.  Bacon fat, or ice cream, would be a better description of density and texture.

[Monkeyleg]

Can you get high from them?

[Jamisjockey]

The fields around my work get a *expletive deleted*it ton of mushrooms.  Big ones.

[charby]

So, I need to make sure I cut the lawn shorter for the next month or so and let the spores that remain get lots of sunlight to burn up and die.

Anyone know what kind of mushroom or fungus this was, by the description?

I'm going to go with giant puffball, mighty tasty when ripe.

More than likely there will show up again when the conditions are right, most mushrooms you see are the fruiting bodies of a much larger body, which in the case of the puff ball is mostly underground. This part of the fungi is called the mycelium.

Interesting info about fungi: http://www.herbarium.usu.edu/fungi/funfacts/mushroom.htm

World's largest living organism: http://archives.microbeworld.org/news/articles/biggest.aspx

[brimic]

Giant puffball=good eating, fun to kick around when they are dried out and full of spores.

[charby]

Giant puffball=good eating, fun to kick around when they are dried out and full of spores.

Also fun to shoot at when they are all dried out. Redneck reaction target.

[makattak]

http://www.tanelorn.us/data/mycology/myc_index.htm

This site has quite a few pictures of the mushrooms common to Arizona. As others have said, it sounds like puffball, but it's possible another type grew without a noticeable stem.

[Tallpine]

After the puffballs take over your yard, there won't be mush room for anything else to grow.

[Nick1911]

Also fun to shoot at when they are all dried out. Redneck reaction target.

These use to grow in a ravine where I grew up, great fun to shoot with a 22lr.

[Gowen]

Mushrooms are the one thing I won't ever eat wild picked.  I've seen too many tree huggers in San Fran die from eating wild mushrooms.  Every few years it seems that family ends up in the hospital.

[Gewehr98]

Loves me some morels!

[zxcvbob]

There's some big ones that come up in my yard every once in a while; I don't think they are puffballs because they are more "mushroom shaped", like an open umbrella.  They get about 10 or 12 inches across.  I looked up the name once, but I can't find it now -- I /think/ they are slightly toxic, so I mow them down so the dogs don't eat them.

[K Frame]

From the consistency it sounds almost as if it was a slimemold.

[RoadKingLarry]

I've seen too many tree huggers in San Fran die from eating wild mushrooms.

You say that like it's a bad thing

[Fly320s]

After the puffballs take over your yard, there won't be mush room for anything else to grow.

I laughed. You're a fungi.

[K Frame]

My exwife got me a book on wild mushrooms.

The one thing that struck me is that two shrooms can look almost identical to where it's virtually impossible to tell them apart, yet one is edible, and the other one will kill you deader than a coffin nail.

[Harold Tuttle]

[brimic]

The one thing that struck me is that two shrooms can look almost identical to where it's virtually impossible to tell them apart, yet one is edible, and the other one will kill you deader than a coffin nail.

Yep. You have to check the color of their spores to determine if its good or death. There are plenty of good eating types that don't look like any of the poisonous ones though.

Our family used to pick mushrooms to eat by the 5 gal bucket fulls because dad not only knew the good mushrooms but where they  grew in large quantities.

[lee n. field]

PUffball.  I have a pic somewhere from a couple summers ago at my Dad's, of one that grew to look exactly like a human butt.

[Tallpine]

PUffball.  I have a pic somewhere from a couple summers ago at my Dad's, of one that grew to look exactly like a human butt.

I've seen butts that looked like puff balls 

[White Horseradish]

I've seen butts that looked like puff balls 

Did you kick them? :)

[Tallpine]

Did you kick them? :)

I wish 

[gunsmith]

Mushrooms are the one thing I won't ever eat wild picked.  I've seen too many tree huggers in San Fran die from eating wild mushrooms.  Every few years it seems that family ends up in the hospital.

yup, the last time I was in a SF emergency room there was a mushroom victim there, ugh.

[gunsmith]

Mushrooms are the one thing I won't ever eat wild picked.  I've seen too many tree huggers in San Fran die from eating wild mushrooms.  Every few years it seems that family ends up in the hospital.

I visit SF once in awhile, are you there? We should get coffee and point fingers and laugh at hipsters