First of all, I would like to say that this is my contribution to #FungiFriday by @ewkaw. With that said, let's continue with the unusual little story this post has to tell. Hope you'll like it.
The summer was hot & dry, and even now, at the beginning of autumn, the situation isn't very different. The days are warm. There is a bit of humidity in the form of the dew early in the morning, but the last rain fell quite a few weeks ago, and even that one wasn't long or strong enough to be significant.
The nature around me doesn't look ready for a fungi season ...
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... so you can imagine my surprise when I saw these lovely Agaricus fruiting bodies on the lawn by the side of an unpaved road that leads through Marlera, the coastal area a couple of kilometers from the village of Liznjan, and five or six kilometers from where I live. I was there for insects & spiders - mushrooms were the last thing on my mind.
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At first, I thought about some golf-related event that left a bunch of golf balls behind. This area was meant to be turned into a golf course a decade or so ago but then the project came to a dead end. There was too much illegal stuff involved. A plan for covert urbanization of the area, and stuff like that. I thought, who knows, maybe the golf people are up to something again. Then, for a few seconds only, I was pretty sure I was looking at some kind of puffball mushrooms.
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One look at this photograph I took when I came closer, makes it clear that these are Agaricus mushrooms of some kind. You can also see that the mushrooms are cut. The weird thing is - I didn't cut them. I just overturned them to see the color of the gills. Someone else cut them and set them up on the lawn. The next weird thing ...
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... is their shape and size. They are all more or less the same. When you come across a bunch of wild Agaricus in this area, they are always a mix of smaller and bigger fruiting bodies, and furthermore, they are always in various stages of development. Some are closed, egg-like, or golf ball-like, just like the ones shown in these photographs, while others look like meaty umbrellas.
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A scene like this just doesn't look right. But is also absolutely believable at the same time. I don't have DNA evidence or anything like that, but all the circumstantial evidence strongly points toward the theory that someone bought a bunch of cultivated mushrooms, let's say in the supermarket, and then brought them here to set up the mushroom-themed prank of the year, and who knows, maybe even of the century.
When I realized what this congregation of mushrooms was probably about, I started laughing from the deepest depths of my heart and an ordinary day turned into an especially happy one. Later at home, I started being a bit jealous that I wasn't the one who thought and put in practice a prank like this. I don't know who brought these champignon mushrooms to Marlera but I'm very impressed by his or her dedication to the art of making things funnier than usual. If I somehow discover who the author is, I'll make another post that sheds more light on things seen in this one.
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These mushrooms are all in good shape, fresh, and perfectly edible, but I didn't pick them. It would be a shame to deny this prank to other people who like to walk around Marlera.
Before leaving, I put the mushrooms I displaced to get some of these photographs, back in their original position. The scene was perfect again, ready to fool another wanderer.
However, I didn't drive back home immediately. I was there primarily for the insects & spiders, so I photographed quite a few of them for my "MACRO OCTOBER IN MARLERA" series. But that's another story, this one ends here.
