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| Photo Credit: Gerald Klingaman |
| Although they’re unsightly, fairy rings don’t do any real damage to a yard. |
After a hot, dry summer, the rains finally returned. The refreshing break revived our thirsty gardens, but it also brought life to an unwelcome addition to our yard – mushrooms. The unsightly fungi magically appeared in lawns and flower beds throughout the neighborhood, and many appeared in the form of fairy rings.
While “fairy rings” may sound pretty, they’re not. They’re just the result of mycelium – or the vegetative body of a mushroom colony – that originally started growing on a piece of underground organic matter, like a dead tree stump or root. As this underground organic matter decays, mycelial strands begin to radiate outward. A sudden increase in moisture (like recent rains) can cause the strands to get reproductive and produce a mushroom – especially when rain is combined with the right soil temperature. If soil is fairly consistent and moist – like you often find in lawns – you might see a fairy ring form a complete circle. Other times only a portion of the circle’s circumference will grow. These partial, often eyebrow-shaped remnants are more common than full circles. | Add Photo to Journal |  | | Photo Credit: Gerald Klingaman | | These green swirls in the grass are caused by the extra nitrogen produced as the mycelium advances outward. A bit of extra fertilizer and water will disguise the problem. |
Of course, this process of decay and underground expansion of fungi mycelium doesn’t go unnoticed in the lawn. In addition to the actual mushrooms, the grass inside the fairy ring usually is less vigorous than the rest of the lawn. Sometimes it browns out because the mycelial mat is so dense that grass roots can’t get the water they need. On the outer extremity of the fairy ring, however, the mycelium is nutrient-rich – especially in nitrogen – so the grass there will be greener and taller than the rest of the lawn.
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