I've been concerned because there is a very large tree on my son's school playground, and in it's shadow, large mushrooms keep popping up. The look like puffballs at first, then their caps darken to yellow, then dark orange with white warts. Their caps never seem to fully flatten out, mostly because the kids end up kicking them around the playground before they are fully mature. The biggest ones are 4 or 5 inches across the cap, with very thick stems. When I have dug them out in the past, the bulbous base is at least half as thick as the cap. (I'm sorry that I don't know the proper terms) I was using gloves to remove them, but nobody else at the school seems to think they are a problem. Would you be concerned about these fungi? Or should I let them be?
My own personal, amateur opinion is that as long as nobody is eating them they're not going to hurt anything. I suppose if you have REALLY young kids playing around there who're young enough to be randomly putting things in their mouths then yeah, I suppose they might be a problem.
Agreed that we don't want little kids eating them in the playground as they contain significant toxins. But handling them with bare hands is fine. And they are prettier than many toxic plants used in landscaping or as houseplants. cheers, frog
At a local park I frequent I run into children often running around kicking the mushrooms (EEEK!). I've learned the information about many and so have learned to help make it more fun for the kids to identify and share their knowledge rather then to destroy or try and eat. Sometimes just telling a kid that little secrets live under and around them (true!) and if we destroy them then those secrets die without anyone ever finding out. :o) sometimes? when kids think things being left alone? are more fun then actually destroying them...they actually DO learn more. and? telling them that eating them would be worse then eating boiled spinach helps too. lol