"I am... a mushroom; On whom the dew of heaven drops now and then."
- John Ford
Field Mushroom - 3cm diameter - 4cm tall - watercolour in Moleskine Watercolour sketch-book
This mushroom popped through my lawn and is white with the most gorgeous pink underside and small indented warts on the cap. At the moment it is 1½" in diameter and about 1½" tall - still a baby I think.
After Googling mushrooms, I found that it is an edible field mushroom, (Agaricus campestris) which is related to the edible button mushrooms often used in cooking and salads.
At Gardening Eden, a nursery in South Africa, one can even buy mushrooms to plant in your garden!
Mushrooms belong neither to the animal nor plant kingdom, but form a phylum all on their own. This is due to the fact that unlike plants, fungi are unable to produce their own food through photosynthesis, as they lack chlorophyll, but resemble animals in their ability to draw their sustenance from animal and plant matter which is dissolved by enzymes and ingested.
Current estimates put the number of species in the fungal kingdom at approximately 1.5 million, in comparison with, for example, flowering plants at 250,000 species.
(Photo by Pamela Kaminski)
P.S.: I forgot to mention that I wouldn't even think of trying to eat it, just in case! There are many similar mushrooms which are deadly.
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