Fettered fungus

Life is full of surprises. There is nothing quite so astonishing than to see how some forms of life spring to being almost from fresh air. One day there is no evidence of life the next something quite outstanding, complex and unique. Today, whilst placing some carrot and parsnip tops onto my open compost heap (I have two – one is open and one is a large plastic enclosed bin) I saw something just under half-way down on the near side of the open topped heap. It was early evening and just beginning to get slightly dark. I bent down and there growing at the side right up against the metal caging was a large variety of mushroom. It was growing sideways and had a very long and sturdy stem and even though mushrooms and toadstools are quite delicate in that they can be bruised or crushed when man-handled, this one had made room for itself and had pulled away the compost from the side of the cage. Normally the compost squeezes itself right up against the wire – if someone had asked me whether it was possible for a mushroom to pull back compost in this fashion before actually seeing it for myself I would have replied ‘No!’

Mushroom growing in the compost heap

 

Wild mushroom sprouting out of the compost heap