I've had large patches of these come up in the same spot a few times per
year after heavy rains for the past 3 or 4 years now. They appear to be
growing from underground rotting post oak wood. I feel a bit guilty as
the stump was finally well rotted enough, we were able to dig most of it
out. We got tired of tripping over it. G

As a result, this teensy little patch was all that came up this time
instead of the usual spread of several clusters over about a 2 ft.
square area. sigh I think they are cute so am considering burying a
few older fallen oak branches in the same area to "feed" them...

Anyway, I tried keying them out last year using my Audubon guide and I
think they keyed out as an edible but I don't remember what I think they
were, and I'm not experienced enough to take chances. I'm understandably
cautious about wild mushrooms unless it's something distinctive enough
for me to recognize like Morels, lions manes or shaggy caps, or even
giant puffballs.

Anyone know what these might be? I live in San Marcos:

http://tinypic.com/xm66mu.jpg
http://tinypic.com/xm67n4.jpg
http://tinypic.com/xm6895.jpg

I tool these pics early yesterday morning and the mushrooms were pretty
well dead and disintigrating already this morning. The spores I got from
the one I picked appeared to be a very dark gray, almost but not quite
black.

TIA!
--
Peace!
Om

"My mother never saw the irony in calling me a Son of a bitch"
-- Jack Nicholson