Fly agaric just beginning to push above the ground; same place as those featured in the previous post.
I went for a second look early on the morning after the other pictures were taken.
The full-grown mushrooms which had been growing in the soil by the flower bed had been kicked over. It can’t have helped that their bright colours make them hard to miss.
The two which were growing half-hidden by the vegetation did not appear to have been disturbed, and this one was now more visible and more photogenic.
UPDATE: Friday 27th September, lunchtime. I’ve just been across the park again, and the flower bed has been emptied and dug over in readiness for its next contents. The fly agarics, which were hiding under the leaves of the old flowers, are gone too.
I’m not surprised that whoever did it, in a workforce decimated by council cuts, didn’t notice the fungi, and I’m hopeful that the underground structures remain to produce fresh fruiting bodies in the future.
UPDATE 2: Saturday 5th October. Another visit to the park, and a new fly agaric has indeed come up in that flower bed. Also a fresh patch of fly agarics nearby. Will post pictures of these once they have been developed.
I agree with you that our parks are having quite a hard time at the moment what with job changes/losses the Tory government is precipitating but the fungi would probably have gone whatever the workers did!
The bloke I spoke to said most of them had been kicked over already. I don’t understand why people have such a thing about poor old mushrooms! He told me that he thought they looked like big slices of pizza and I agree.