Special Issue, September 11, 2002
Marasmius oreades Galore
By Herman Brown, Greenville, CA

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On Tuesday, September 10th, I went to check out a report of a large white mushroom growing in a friend's yard.  I looked around for it but couldn't find it, but while searching around the rest of the property, I came across the largest bunch of mushrooms I have ever seen.  They looked like the Fairy Ring Mushrooms in many large rings, but they were also grouped in pretty tight clumps.  I had never seen this before, so I took a picture on a few and sent the pictures to Fred Stevens and Mike Wood, to get their opinions.

With the help of my microscope and some ID tips from Fred, I was able to identify them (and feel comfortable with the identification) as the Marasmius oreades, also called the  Fairy Ring Mushroom.  The next day I took more pictures.  Here are most of them.  If you click on any picture, you can see a larger picture.  

They are viewed best with your browser set for full screen:

ID Photo # 1	ID Photo #2. A microscopic picture of a longitudinal  section of the cap, showing the cuticle cells, about 150X
Large rings	Part of another large ring
Part of another large ring	Close-up of a clump
A group of Clumps
Some were decent-sized	Some were pretty large
A puffball was found also	The collection basket
The collection. (Were we greedy?  YEAH!)	A few cooked up with a little salt, butter, and olive oil (Yum!)

While we were still at the friend's house, I cooked some up for her to taste.  She agreed that they were very tasty.