I found a stand of white toadstools in a yard behind a shop I frequent. I had not seen mushrooms that big in quite a while. In my younger years I was quite a mushroom enthusiast, not for eating them but for finding and identifying them. September is a good time for mushrooms and if it's wet you can find "blooms" of them under trees or in moist areas.

I believe that these mushrooms are Chlorophylla molybdites which is a common species in this area. They are poisonous. If you are unfortunate enough to eat one, you probably won't die but you will be very sick.

I would count myself as a "nature-lover" but not in the romantic sense. I enjoy being out in "natural" environments so that I can analyze and identify species and think about the ecosystem. I think of all the many species of plants and fungi and animals and birds and insects as a vast problem set waiting for me to identify them and find their place in the system. Or else I am there to make sketches, which are also like problems to be solved. My moments of nature bliss or sense of wonder are less frequent than the enjoyment of having identified a bird or mushroom species, or matching a specific shade of sunlit green under the rustling romantic canopy.

Posted at 3:45 am | link