AboutRobin Expertise I can answer questions relating to the identification, growing and ethnobotany of native plants in the Midwest and East Coast of the United States, particularly the Great Lakes Region.
I am not so good with grasses and I cannot answer questions related to the West Coast or the deep South.
Experience I maintain a half acre woodland garden in Michigan. I have attended many native gardening workshops and I studied field botany in college. I have taken groups on native plant walks.
Organizations Michigan Native Gardeners
Wild Ones
Education/Credentials I have a Bachelor of Arts degree in Anthropology with a Biology minor.
Expert: Robin Date: 6/9/2008 Subject: black headed fungus
Question Today I found some black headed fungus in one of my flower beds. Do you know anything about this fungus? All I can find online is the picture of it. If you can tell me anything about it I'd appreciate it greatly, especially is it a harmful fungus or will it just appear and then go away? Thanks for any info you can give me.
Answer I'm afraid I'm not sure what it is. Is it on the plants themselves or is it like a mushroom growing out of the ground? If it's on the plants themselves you may have a problem, but if it's growing out of the ground you probably don't need to worry. Mushroom heads are the sex organs of much larger organisms that live underground. So, much like flowers, they bloom in their season and then disappear. Unfortunately, this means if you want to get rid of them for good you'll have your work cut out for you because the larger organism is rather difficult to see and can be quite large and spread out underground. However, changing the PH of the soil, cutting back shrubs so it gets more light and doing other things to increase or decrease soil moisture or the amount of organic matter in the soil will make it less ideal for the fungus and it may go away on its own. Or you can just enjoy your interesting volunteer.
I don't know if it's poisonous and so there's another thing to be concerned about. Best always to just assume that it's poisonous.
