Wet Weather Brings Unexpected [Psychedelic] Mushrooms To Local Lawns

All of the rain we've been having this year has turned a part of my lawn into a mushroom farm. I've found two different types of mushrooms growing, one called a yellow fieldcap, but I was surprised by the other when I used Google Lens to ID it. Google claims what I've got growing is psychedelic!

It's been a great year, so far, for mushrooms in Minnesota

Early in the year, our cool and wet weather meant it was peak mushroom growing time, and mushroom hunters, like those looking for Morel mushrooms. Many mushroom hunters were having early luck, before a May heatwave may have burned them out.

Recent cooler, wet weather has been a boom for mushrooms again, and fungi fans are starting to see them popping up more and more, including in my lawn.

The mushroom above was identified as a yellow fieldcap, and below is what was ID'd by Google Lens as being a psilocybin mushroom.

Are the mushrooms growing in your lawn edible?

The short answer is some are. The world of mushrooms is vast, so you'll have to be VERY sure before you try eating a mushroom growing in your lawn. From what I've got growing, one of the types, a yellow fieldcap, isn't meant for eating as it grows on feces, but according to Google Lens the other mushroom I've got growing would be suitable for eating, but there would be a potential consequense for eating them, as they are 'supposedly' psychedelic.

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The psychedelic mushroom is growing on what I believe are pieces of wood from our woodchip landscaping cover around our tree, and according to an online website, these mushrooms are more at home in the Pacific Northwest than here in the Midwest.

How to avoid having mushrooms pop up in your lawn

There are a couple of things you can do to keep mushrooms from popping up in your lawn. All of the things you can do are pretty commonsense and don't take too much time to implement.

One of the big things you can do is make sure you have proper drainage. Dethatching your lawn is another way to keep the mushrooms from growing. Some other things you can do, is keep up with the decaying matter like grass clippings and leaves in your lawn and add more light to your lawn, which can be tougher if you like a tree canopy but trimming up shrubs and bushes to bring in more light will help those areas of your lawn.

I've treated the 'suspect' mushrooms

I've treated the 'suspect' mushrooms growing in my lawn, as well as grabbed a fungicide that I can apply with my next round of lawn fertilizer that will be put down this weekend, hopefully ending my bumper crop of mushrooms, until later this year when I aerate.