curving up and out
fairy parasols pushing up
along the wood chip path
Delicate white cap mushrooms keep pushing up through the grass along our wood chip path like a parade of Japanese parasols. The mushroom starts out as a tiny white cone on the ground, quickly elongating into a thin white stem with a bulbous cap, then spreading out, round and wide, like a paper parasol with tiny pleats and a brown button in the center. In a few days the parasol begins to droop and finally falls over in a ragged heap. A quick search suggests that our little shroom might be Parasola plicatilis (parasol pleated), commonly called Japanese Parasol or Pleated Inky Cap. Probably not poisonous, like the Death Angel, which emerges from a sack and has a much thicker stalk. These mushrooms might be edible, but they're too flimsy to bother gathering. Still, they light up our path and I am careful not to step on them.
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