Fungi!

 I have told several people that since moving to Florida, I haven't seen mushrooms. There are lichens on trees, but unlike the northeast, where mushrooms just pop up in yards, I don't see fungi. 

Until today! Ricky Morriseau and I went to the Lieberman Botanical Garden to rehearse this morning, a beautiful fall day in Florida (it was only 65 degrees! I wore a scarf!). We found these beautiful fungi growing throughout the park. 

    The camera didn't pick it up well, but this fungi, a Flowerpot Parasol, is actually a beautiful light yellow. While beautiful, it is poisonous. 

This one looks like a model for a cartoon mushroom. As Ricky said, "It's a work of art itself!", and it is. The edges, the spots, the shape. This Green-spored Parasol is beautiful. Fun side note- it is also "the most poisonous mushroom in North America", according to the Seek app!

More Flowerpot Parasols. 

And this little gilled mushroom was so tiny I couldn't get a good read with the app. But it was the first one I found in the park, and it just made my day.