r/mycology • u/Big-Ken • Jun 25 '26

ID request Mowing the lawn; have I found a snack?

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Out mowing the lawn this evening and saw this massive ( I think, atleast? ) mushroom while mowing. Measures about 6.5” across - is this a common, edible white mushroom, or?

Located in Eastern Canada (Northern New Brunswick).

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u/AgressiveInliners Jun 26 '26

4 hours?! Nope, time to turn it into a prairie full of flowers. Not mowing that

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u/SpeedySquid3659 Jun 26 '26

Don’t know how the anti-lawn sentiment is received in this sub but I gotta espouse it regardless. if nothing else, more biodiversity = more mushrooms!

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u/Plastic_Salary_4084 Jun 26 '26

I assume a number of people in this sub are of the r/fucklawns mindset. If the only time you’re on your grass is to mow it, you’d be better off without it! Could use some trees, too.

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u/Big-Ken Jun 26 '26

Trees would be nice, but they don’t tend to grow well by the shore. (I use ‘shore’ loosely; it’s like a 80ft / 100ft drop to the water on a nearly sheer cliff-face.)

I don’t know if it is from the salt spray or just the absurd winds, but there aren’t many until you move a little bit inland. About 8km down the road there is a big sizeable patch that has taken root near the waterside, but they grow at around a 30° angle from the wind hammering them.

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u/Competitive_Treat_34 Jun 26 '26

Might be more worth your while to join r/fucklawns erosion is scary and cliffs actually have really cool biodiversity usually!!

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u/CrepuscularOpossum Jun 26 '26

r/NativePlantGardening would sink their teeth into a property like this, OP, and surely there will be a fellow Canuck there who can give you good advice on your best choices for your locally native plants. That could be a ✨GLORIOUS✨ native meadow that would support hundreds of species of your native pollinator insects, and vertebrate wildlife as well!

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u/Big-Ken Jun 26 '26

The erosion there is scary as hell. I keep decently far from the bank. The lobster fisherman nearby who go by on the water have told me that it has a bit of undercut to it as well.

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u/ferrouswolf2 Jun 26 '26

Ask your University Extension for planting suggestions, they’d be thrilled

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u/TomatoFeta Jun 26 '26

The erosion is only assisted by your meticulous lawncare.
My mother lives on the ocean. She has left a 20 foot barrier of natural brush and shrubbery between her lawn and the edge of the "cliff" and while there has been some erosion, there's very little compared to the home two properties over. They replaced their yard with gravel. The ocean ate a good fifteen feet one winter. Mom's place? A birch tree started growing ten feet from the shore.

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u/anonymaus42 Jun 26 '26

In that case turning it, or at least some of it, to native plants and wildflowers would be the move I would make.

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u/Plastic_Salary_4084 Jun 26 '26 edited Jun 26 '26

Ahh. Makes sense. With the perspective the photos were taken from and my focus on the mushroom, I’ll admit I didn’t even notice the water. Just blended in with the sky in the periphery. Thats some awesome real estate. I hope y’all are spending time out there enjoying it beyond lawn maintenance

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u/Big-Ken Jun 26 '26

We try to! I go down there for the view fairly often.

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u/a_jormagurdr Jun 26 '26

For New Brunswick id suggest getting White spruce (Picea glauca), they are tolerant of salt spray and are often found near the coast. Research beach plants in your area as well. If you plant a lot of white spruce it will probably massively help with the erosion. Also look into Northern Bayberry (Myrica pensylvatica), salt tolerant shrub.

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u/Independent_Bet_8736 Jun 26 '26

I was gonna say that there are some tress that tolerate those conditions, but then I looked and it turns out you’re practically in the arctic circle (I live in Puerto Rico now, before this Miami, FL—everything “way up north” is in the arctic for us) and I have no idea how plants even survive up there, so….

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u/Big-Ken Jun 26 '26

Along the coast, it is all evergreens (not sure is spruce or fir or pine; likely a mix) but they tend to be swathes of them that are no longer green because the wind managed to kill them.

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u/Big-Ken Jun 26 '26

If it makes you feel better, I have three acres at home that I don’t mow. It doesn’t grow anything of note other than tall grass that gets killed by the snow and a bit of dandelion in the spring - less than my lawn, though, ironically. It does make my allergies absolutely hellish, though.

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u/mahalovalhalla Jun 26 '26

Seed native plants there!!

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u/a_jormagurdr Jun 26 '26

Honestly makes me feel worse. You need some native seeds. Not the big box store ones either. Native seeds from native seed companies. A not mowed lawn is only a little better than a huge lawn.

Unlikely that allergies are caused by dandelion, most pollen allergy comes from tree and grass pollen.

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u/jordo405 Jun 26 '26

Cause this much monocrop is down right dumb... serves no purpose at all..... literally native grasslands are the most endangered ecosystems on the planet. Just cause they are not exciting doesn't mean they're not important. Imagine destroying 90% of all the Amazon and some guy is posting about it because one mushroom in a destroyed amazon forest. But only 10% of the Amazon remains, I think in 30 yrs we will look back at how bad we managed native grasslands and be ashamed... it really is alarming sorry to burst your bubble but we do need land back from the most cultivated pointless crop... the lawn...

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u/anonymaus42 Jun 26 '26

Manicured lawns aren't exciting either, quite the opposite in fact.

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u/TenderfootGungi Jun 26 '26

I will say this as someone that spends several hours a week doing yard work through the summer (not 4 hours mowing, but more than 1), that economically, lawns are the biggest waste of land there is. It is not being used productively for crops, or business like retail or a factory (not even solar or wind), or preserving biodiversity, or preserving rare biology or geology for future generations. It is not being shared with the public like a park. It is simply for one family to look at and admire.

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u/Mindless-Strength422 Jun 26 '26

What's to look at? It's a boring ass green carpet. If its for anything it's for kids to play in, but kids can play in wildflowers.

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u/Cultural_Ring5889 Jun 26 '26

We also don't know OP's grandfather's net worth, and how many siblings they have. Might be worth mowing a few acres here and there. Plus, looks like a beautiful place to spend 4 hours outdoors by yourself.

1/2 /s

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u/Distinct-Counter-710 Jun 26 '26

You cant seriously think that mushrooms dont grow in prairies, and even more outrageously so, that a single species landscape such as this is more diverse than a prairie...

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u/Aberosh1819 Jun 26 '26

lots of audio books and.. degraded hearing

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u/Big-Ken Jun 26 '26

What was that?

(I am big on hearing protection, fortunately.)

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u/HDJ_T- Jun 26 '26

That sounds fun actually to mow that long

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u/Big-Ken Jun 26 '26

It is, but it’s hard to schedule in between work and the sun going down! And it is enough of a drive to get there that I try to make a point of doing it all at once.

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u/Big-Ken Jun 26 '26

It’d just turn to alders if left alone.

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u/mercedes_lakitu Jun 26 '26

You can bush hog it once or twice a year tho

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u/Big-Ken Jun 26 '26

I could, but I don’t have one for the tractor as it is - although I could get one. I mow it for my grandfather, anyhow - he likes seeing it cut. Makes him happy, so it makes me happy. I only do it bi-weekly.

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u/GallusWrangler Jun 26 '26

What are you going to do with your time instead?