Yesterday I came upon this Fairy Ring or Fairy Circle. It is not the most obvious one I have ever seen, but hopefully you can make out the circle in the photograph. What we call mushrooms are just the fruiting bodies of fungi , the bulk of plant which grow underground. Fairy Rings are formed when a mushroom pops up out of the ground, then the underground part (mycelium) spreads away in a circle from the original mushroom, and sends up a new mushrooms at its end. Each year the circle of mushrooms gets larger.
Fairy rings have been the subject of a lot of folk beliefs. It was thought that they show where witches have danced during the night. It seems that it is very unlucky to step inside a fairy ring. Take warning, it is extremely unlucky to do so on Halloween.
I found this particular fairy ring interesting because it was made up of clusters of mushrooms instead of individual ones. Below is a photo of one of those clusters.
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