Rainy weather has mushrooms popping up in yards

There's a fungus among us.

It's popping up all over the place, in the middle of lush, green grass everywhere.

In front yards. On soccer fields. In back yards.

Call it mushroom mania, if you will.

A veritable explosion of them seems to have taken place, brought on by the monsoon-like weather the last few days.

"It has been the perfect conditions for them,'' said Marina D'Abreau, a residential horticulturist with the Hillsborough County Extension Service. "It's a matter of having more rainfall this time of year and the perfect level of humidity and temperatures.

"It's a good feeding ground for those fungi.''

While many mushrooms are harmless, there are about 15 deadly species and about 100 poisonous kinds, experts say.

"You never want to pick a mushroom and eat it out of your yard,'' said Jane Morse, a commercial horticulturist with the Pinellas County Extension Service. "The only mushroom I would eat is something I would get at a store. Lots of people who think they know mushrooms have gotten the wrong kind and died.''

If you are handling the mushrooms at all, Morse suggests wearing gloves.

"Make sure you wash your hands,'' she said. "You don't want to ingest any of it at all.''

The mushrooms drop spores from underneath their cap that lead to - guess what - more mushrooms.
That's why you tend to see them in clusters.

Sometimes, you can smell them, too, Morse said.

One variety is called the stinkhorn, so named because it smells like rotting flesh, the extension service official said.

"We have people bring them in on a pretty regular basis,'' Morse said of the orange-colored fungus that attracts flies which then spread the spores.

D'Abreau said she has noticed outbreaks of ordinary mushrooms in her Manatee County neighborhood.

"Our next-door neighbor has a back yard full of plate-sized mushrooms,'' she said.

You can leave them alone and they will die away when conditions become drier. Or it's OK to just mow over the mushrooms, D'Abreau said. Doing so won't create more, but it could provide a mess that could be inviting to pets and kids alike.

"A lot of dogs will avoid them, because they seem to know better,'' she said. "Kids don't always know better.''