Tom Volk's Fungus of the Month for August 1999 This month's fungus is Chlorophyllum molybdites , the green spored Lepiota To the left is a fairy ring of this month's fungus, Chlorophyllum molybdites . Fairy rings got their name in the olden days in Europe, when people came upon these rings of mushrooms in clearings and meadows in the woods. Obviously there must have been some fairies or wood nymphs doing their magical dances during the night in and out of these fairy rings. Now before you make any value judgments about the fairies in the ring in this picture, let me tell you about the people I forced to do this. I am now happy to count them both among my most important mycological colleagues.
Grassy lawns are a fairly homogenous substrate and the mushrooms often grow in rings.
The colony of the Chlorophyllum must have been inoculated in the center several years before. Usually the center of such colonies dies and the only living part is around the outside edge, where the fruiting bodies can form. It's a little more complicated for a fungus in the woods. The substrate is not so homogenous. You can see Calvatia gigantea forming fairy rings in the deep woods as the August 1998 Fungus of the Month.