Alternate titles for this post:  Mushroom Palooza, Mushroom Mania, Mushroomville USA, Denise’s Idea of Paradise

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I discovered mushrooms in Arkansas.  They were captivating and other-worldly.  I took dozens upon dozens of photos and narrowed the selection down to 17 essential mushroom photos for you to enjoy.  The text will be kept at a minimum as I think the photos speak for themselves.

  

I didn’t know what the black object was when I photographed the mushroom photo above.  When I reviewed the photos on my computer, I realized it’s one of my favorite spiders, the Micrathena gracilis.  See the photo below for a close-up.

Don’t you want to reach out and touch one of these mushrooms?  I certainly wanted to but given the risk of encountering poisonous mushrooms I was hesitant.

But science and satisfying my own curiosity required I touch a mushroom.  I felt one of the light colored ‘shrooms.  It felt squishy, like a balloon.  It was not the same feeling as a common mushroom you purchase from the grocery store.  I didn’t develop a heinous skin reaction so I continued to study the mushrooms with my finger.  (I washed my hands before eating later that day.)

There were darker versions of the same mushroom.  I assume these are aged mushrooms.

At one location which is burned in my memory as the most enchanting mushroom location I have ever visited, I noticed brown powder.  I sat and inspected the area.

The powdery substance is dried up mushroom.

I touched one of the aged looking ‘shrooms and a puff of powder exuded from the mushroom.  I could have stayed next to this log all day, admiring the mushrooms.

The neatest cluster of mushrooms I have ever seen.

A few days later my friend and I inquired with the locals about these mushrooms.  They didn’t know the technical name – but they were very familiar with them since childhood.  They referred to them as puff mushrooms.  I felt safer knowing that the locals describing their experiences with the mushrooms had reached middle age without dying from exposure to these fascinating ‘shrooms!

Before leaving Arkansas, I touched one more mushroom to see the puff of powder.

Some sleuthing on the Internet led to an unofficial identification of these mushrooms:  Puffballs.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puffball

Cameras:  Rockalita Sunshine (Canon EOS 5D Mark IV), Canon G16
Lens:  My beloved 100 mm macro lens (Canon EF 100mm f/2.8 L macro IS)
Date:  October 2016