Though they consider it nature-made, Don Harris and his wife Fran and family members have been pondering the cause of a “fairy ring” found on their family farm in Pert, near Neches. The circle is about 12 feet in diameter and features green grass on the circle perimeter. Large mushrooms are growing in the ring of the circle, but no where else in the field.

Fairy rings in a Belgian Garden (Filip Van Raemdonck)

This got me to wondering: What is the largest fairy ring ever observed? A search led to Wikipedia (duh!) which had this to say:

It is said that there are about 40 to 60 mushroom species which can grow in the fairy ring pattern. The best known is the edible Scotch bonnet (Marasmius oreades), which is commonly known as the fairy ring champignon. One of the largest rings ever found is in France. Formed by Clitocybe geotropa, it is thought to be about 600 m in diameter and over 700 years old. On the South Downs in southern England, Calocybe gambosa has formed huge fairy rings which appear to be several hundred years old.

A post from the U.S. National Park Service leads me to believe 500-600 footers are not uncommon.

Another post, with an anonymous author, entitled Fairy Rings, claims the largest known example is over a kilometer in diameter. And perhaps I heard at a party (or read on a message board) that the largest fairy ring exists in the Hoh Rain Forest of Washington state, but I couldn’t confirm it.

Then of course there is The Largest Fairy Ring on Planet Earth, which doesn’t exactly look like it’s the largest fairy ring on planet Earth but…

And there was “some other guy” who said the largest fairy ring “covered several states.” Yowee.

Who’s right?

"Hey Kid, I'm trying to take a picture of a fairy ring here" (David Gough)

Chorioactis geaster in Texas (Tim Jones)

Chorioactis geaster is a rare gasteromycete apparently found in only Texas and Japan (go figure). Forrest Mims is a Texas-based science writer interested in this unusual fungus and his article Texas Star fungus a rare, wonderful sight provides an update.

In 1998, my wife Minnie saw one of the rarest sights in all of Texas when she saw a white plume that resembled smoke jetting from our back yard on a cool November morning. When we investigated, we found a beautiful star-shaped fungus where the plume had originated. We had no idea what the fungus was named, but Texas Parks & Wildlife magazine answered the question. The magazine had arrived only a few days before, and it included an article about the devil’s cigar (or Texas star) and photographs of fungi identical to ours.

More on Chorioactis geaster:

Chorioactis geaster at Wikipedia

The Devil’s Cigar

The Texas Star

How rare is the devil’s cigar?

And Mims has posted a very short video of the fungus…