The last 24 hours featured lots of rain

In Menlo weather watcher Dennis Nugent’s digital rain gauge has been busy recording what is the first really good rain of the rain year that stared October 1, 2024. It recorded 0.35″ on Thursday, Dec. 26, and another 0.40″ as of 9:30 this morning, bringing the year to date total to 6.18″.

At a holiday gathering last night, the talk was all about spotting a wide variety of mushrooms while out walking. That led us to last year’s post on December 27, republished below.

“InMenlo reader Chris MacIntosh emailed:

‘These large mushrooms (pictured top) caught my eye along Alma by the library. Several trees must have been removed as they grow on dead or dying wood.

‘They are Honey mushroom, armilleria mellea. They are pretty easy to tell: brown; growing in a cluster; on tree roots or at base of a tree; white spores (the whitish dust falling on to lower caps); a ring around the upper part of the stem.

‘They are pretty common. Friends send me emails saying ‘what are these mushrooms in my lawn’ and I have to tell them that these are likely growing on tree roots and that the tree is dying.’

InMenlo file photo by Chris MacIntosh (c) 2023