Six Kinds Of Mushrooms You Might Find In Colorado This Year

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<p>(Courtesy Flickr user <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/artfarmer/5625276132/" target="_blank">ArtFarmer</a>)</p>
<p>Colorado&#039;s wet spring means mushrooms like this black morel are growing earlier than usual. </p>

Delicious or pernicious? Mushrooms are popping up all over the Front Range right now. They're in forests, meadows -- and maybe even in your backyard.

Have you ever wondered what makes them suddenly appear and then just vanish? Or what you can do with them?

Denver Botanic Gardens’ Vera Stucky Evenson just published an update to the field guide, "Mushrooms of the Rocky Mountain Region." She spoke with Colorado Matters host Ryan Warner about the kingdom of fungi.

Six mushrooms you can spot around Colorado this summer

  • Amanita muscaria (Fly Agaric)
  • Marasmius oreades (Fairy Ring)
  • Parasola plicatilis (Japanese Umbrellas)
  • Pleurotus populinus (Oyster Mushroom)
  • Boletus edulis (Porcini)
  • Calvatia booniana (Giant Western Puffball)

Photos of these mushrooms are in the slideshow above.