How do I learn about mushrooms?
I found two mushrooms growing in my flower bed. One is green with white dots and the other is red with white dots What can you tell me about these?
Answer
The first thing you should know about mushrooms is that identification of them is fairly specialized. If you don't know exactly what the specimen is, don't get too close. From your description it would be difficult to identify the ones you found in your flower bed, although red with white spots does without knowing anything else raise a red flag.
If you are curious to learn what you have, take a picture with your cell phone or a digital camera and bring it in to the PHS Library and take a look at the mushroom books we have here. To see what we have, type the keyword "mushrooms" (no quotes) in to this link to our online catalog.