Sandy Laccaria
(Laccaria trullisata)
Sand Castle
Sandy Laccaria sculpture

Sandy Laccaria

sculpture, acrylic paints

The sandy laccaria has a convex to flat, dingy pink to dingy brown cap 1-3 inches across, first convex with an incurved margin, then flat.

Sandy Laccaria

Sandy Laccaria, Side View

The broad, thick, purple to pink, widely-spaced gills attach to the stalk. The spore print is white.

The curved, solid, dry, dingy pink to dingy pale brown stalk is 1-4 inches long, 1/4 to 3/4 inches thick.

Sandy Laccarias

Sandy Laccarias, Upended

The entire mushroom is covered with sand. It grows, partially buried in the sand, along the Atlantic coast and the Great Lakes coast, from late summer through the fall.

Although it's supposed to be edible (but not very good), trying to eat it can still kill you: you die of old age before you can remove all the sand!

In fact, so much sand fell off the mushroom I used as a model for the sculpture photographed above, I glued the same sand onto the sculpture to complete the piece.