5 Types of Lawn Mushrooms

Ideally, nothing but grass would grow on your lawn. Unfortunately, as anyone who has ever cared for a lawn already knows, that is rarely the case. Since you are giving this space the water it needs to remain green, plenty of other life forms will compete for that water and try to grow through the grass. 

It’s common to see mushrooms making their way up through a lawn. Not only are the mushrooms unsightly – and unpleasant to step on – but they can also be dangerous for pets who might decide to take a bite. Let’s take a look in this article at some of the types of lawn mushrooms that you might deal with during the growing season. 

If you need any help with ongoing lawn maintenance, or any other type of landscaping project in the Jackson, WY area, please don’t hesitate to reach out to TLC today. 

5 Common Types of Lawn Mushrooms to Watch For in Your Lawn

You could easily spend a lifetime learning everything there is to know about mushrooms. This is an extremely complex area of biology and a topic that is famous for being difficult to learn with countless small variations and regional differences. We can’t cover it all here, but we can help you understand what you might be seeing on your lawn. 

Also, this might go without saying, but don’t eat mushrooms that you find growing on your property. Without extensive, hands-on training, you simply don’t know which mushrooms are safe to eat and which are potentially harmful. Simply dispose of any mushrooms you remove from your yard and restrict your kitchen to only those mushrooms that are acquired at the grocery store. 

With that background set, here are five types of lawn mushrooms that you might encounter –

• Haymaker. This is a small mushroom, so you might not spot it as quickly as some of the others further down this list. The haymaker rarely grows to more than 3’’ tall or so, and the caps are just around 1’’ wide or so. This mushroom is varying shades of brown in color. 
• Ringless Honey. As the name would suggest, this mushroom is a golden honey color, and this version does not have a ring around its stem. While you might find it growing out in your yard, it’s particularly common to see this mushroom near the base of a tree or tree stump. 
• Shaggy Ink Cap. Again here, the name will point you in the right direction on the appearance of this mushroom. The head of the mushroom is shaped like a bell, and the top is a dirty brown while the edges will start to turn black as the mushroom ages. 
• Fairy Ring. In this case, the name of the mushroom will help you understand how a group of mushrooms is likely to grow on your property. You are likely to see a ring shape of these mushrooms growing, or at least a partial ring, and they are a light brown/tan color in many cases. 
• Puffball. You’ll have no trouble spotting puffball mushrooms on your lawn, as they are large white balls that don’t even appear to have a stem while they are attached to the turf. Some forms of puffball mushrooms can even grow to two feet in diameter and up to a foot tall. 

How to Prevent Mushrooms in Your Yard

It’s quite common for mushrooms to grow on lawns, but there are some steps you can take to reduce the likelihood of this occurrence. Start by making it inhabitable to mushrooms, perhaps begin by avoiding extra organic matter in the yard for the mushrooms to use as a food source. 

If you have some leftover compost sitting near the yard, for example, that could jumpstart a new growth of mushrooms. Likewise, leaving the dog poop in your yard for a while before picking it up is another form of organic matter that could lead to unwanted growth. Winning the battle against mushrooms starts by knowing what you are dealing with. Pay attention to what is growing in your yard and you’ll be able to develop a plan. Thank you for visiting and feel free to contact TLC at any time for help with your landscaping needs.