Tag: clusters

Mid-Summer and We Have Mushrooms

July mushrooms in my Florida yard. A very large reddish-orange one and some smaller types hidden in long grass.

Well, it’s Florida so you never know. I guess mushrooms can show up at anytime, even mid-summer. I don’t claim to know a lot about mushrooms, but they have always interested me.

Today I have found these large, reddish orange mushrooms in the grass under a big oak tree. I had to get my hand (and foot) in there for size comparison…LOL. This is the front yard “lawn” which is mostly weeds. The mushrooms seem to be growing from the oak tree roots (maybe).

underside of the reddish orange mushroom
large, red-orange mushroom in the grass
Dark orange with red mushroom top

A week or so ago I was ripping up some tall grass along the side of my Vegega garden bed and found bunches of mushrooms (below).

I can’t find the names of these mushrooms, but wanted to share the photos.

I always discovered interesting mushrooms in the woods when I lived in New Hampshire. Fall was an especially good time to search for them. It was fun to take a walk in the woods and see what was out there. I miss it.

I find it odd to see mushrooms in July in Florida. It seems like a weird time for them to grow. Quite honestly that big reddish mushroom is a bit scary looking. It seems like something so strange belongs in this state.

I took one more mushroom photo (below). It looks like an old and new version comparison with the dark set in front and newer growth behind.

Just for fun, I have included a Zebra Butterly on my yellow dahlia. A morning surprise in the garden.

Smooth top rust color mushrooms
Zebra butterfly on yellow dahlia flower

If you know what these mushrooms are, please leave a comment.

Clusters of Purple Berries on The Beautyberry Bush

I’m all for learning something new each day, and today I learned that the clusters of purple berries on the stem in my backyard is part of the Beautyberry bush.  This odd stem of berries in clumps caught my eye as I walked through my small backyard.  I had to get photos, but the trouble I had was capturing the true purple color of these berries.

purple beauty berry
Beautyberry stem of purple berries

Using my iPhone, I took numerous photos of these striking purple clumps and none of the photos showed the actual dark purple color correctly. Below is the color my phone produced, but the other photos more closely match the actual darker purple. I had to replicate that in Pixelmator.

purple berries
iPhone photo is brighter purple color than reality

This stem is sticking out of my backyard hedge. The hedge is made up of a variety of plants which have grown very tall and create a border between the back of my house and the house next door. I did not plant the Beautyberry, but someone may have done so years ago. Or maybe it grew wild.

The Beautyberry is a southern bush with berry stems that show up in September. It’s berries feed birds and wildlife and the leaves and berries are good as mosquito repellent. Read more interesting info at the Garden.org site.

purple berries
A striking stem of purple berries

I found some other interesting flora to photograph that same day. The Elephant Ear was blooming and the banana trees had sent off a new shoot which would grow a long stem of bananas. A dead tree is full of clusters of dark purple berries and I don’t know yet what those are. There is always something new to learn when I step outside.