Welcome rains have Georgia’s peanuts, cotton, pastures and
yards growing again. But one
emerging plant isn’t so welcome: mushrooms. A University
of Georgia scientist said they’re popping up in yards all
over the state.

"We see mushrooms emerge when rain comes after an
extended dry period," said Ed Brown, an Extension Service plant pathologist with the
UGA College of
Agricultural and Environmental
Sciences. "Dry weather stresses these fungi. Then water
becomes available, it
triggers the reproductive mechanism and we get
mushrooms."

Mushrooms are plants. They don’t contain chlorophyll, the
chemical that makes most
plants green, but they are plants.

"Mushrooms are the fruiting bodies of fungi that live
below the soil
surface," Brown said. "A lot of people think mushrooms
are a sign of soil
problems. But they’re not bad for the soil."

In fact, fungi are a vital part of a healthy soil ecosystem,
Brown said. The fungi that
live in the soil help break down dead plants and other organic
materials.

"We just don’t want them in our yards," Brown said.
While the fungi that
produce mushrooms are good for soil, they’re not good for your
lawn. And they can be
harmful to your pets and even your children.

Circles or partial circles of mushrooms, called fairy rings,
show where a colony of
fungi is hard at work helping material decay. The ‘fingers’ of
the fungi extend radially
from the colony, and mushrooms grow where the fingers emerge
from the soil.

Fairy rings are the hardest mushrooms to deal with. "Not
only are the plants
themselves hard to control," Brown said, "but they can
damage your lawn."

Fairy rings and other mushrooms produce toxins that can kill
lawn grasses. So even when
you get rid of the mushrooms, you could still have a dead patch
in your yard.

The toxin mushrooms most commonly produce is a cyanide-based
chemical. So keep children
and pets away from yard mushrooms to avoid poisoning or other
health problems.

Left-click to download the 9.16 M .jpg image; right-click to download the thumbnail image.

If you know a child has eaten a yard mushroom, collect a
sample of it and call the
poison control center immediately. Doctors will need to know
what mushroom was eaten to
properly treat the child.

Brown recommends prevention to keep mushrooms in the woods.
"Keep your lawn
moist," he said. "If it stays adequately moist, the
fungus will stay underground
and won’t produce mushrooms."

If you already have mushrooms, kick them over, run over them
with the mower or pull
them up. That keeps them from releasing the spores that spread
the fungi. Then prevent
further lawn damage by thoroughly aerating the soil.

Do that by poking holes in the ground with a pitchfork,
garden cultivator or aerator.
Your local garden center may rent aerators that attach to your
riding lawn mower.

"After you aerate the soil, water the area to dilute any
toxins and wash them
through the soil," Brown said. If a patch of grass has
died, reestablish grass in
that area next spring, and keep it moist to prevent new mushroom
growth.