Short Life of a Mushroom

On Friday, May 30, I stumbled upon a bunch of wild mushrooms on a patch of grass in  a quiet corner of our campus.  They looked like little snowballs. Perfectly white, and almost spherical - in 30 degree weather. They looked so elegant, and delicate.  But they had to be much tougher than they appeared.  The grass lawns on campus must be saturated with weed-killers; they look immaculate - not a blade of weed can be seen, except these little snowballs.  Hence these little balls of white must be very tough, to bae able to sprout and even thrive, apparently.  And probably poisonous too. 

In 3 days, many of them had turned into umbrellas.  Elegant, perfect in form.  Photograph-ready.  But for how long?

Some of them, had already progressed beyond that.  They were turning brown, and the umbrellas were beginning to flip, giving a hint of dark folds underneath. 

Another 7 days,  most have shrivelled.  

Some have flipped completely, exposing the almost-black, sinister-looking underbelly.  The stems had completely dried up.  Most of the mushrooms had actually disintegrated completely. Gone.  

Such is the short life of a wild mushroom.  Pretty for a couple of days, followed by rapid decline, then oblivion.