Fairy rings have intrigued man for centuries, stimulating in him the desire for understanding. The curious scar which magically appears in fields and meadows, often perfectly round in shape and sometimes decorated with toadstools, has been written about by such notable poets as Shakespeare, Pope, Tennyson and Kipling.
The distribution of fairy rings, which is almost as ubiquitous as grass, is reflected by historical writings of many cultures in richly embroidered explanations of their origin. The most popular account, that of fairies trampling the grass in circular dances, may be found in the folk lore of many nations. In some accounts the toadstools provide shelter or obstacles for the dance and in others they are “suitable seats for musicians or tired dancers”!
The ring of bare soil, which is often
gardener or farmer would employ to improve the fertility of the soil was to apply an appropriate manure. It is therefore not surprising in writings of this era to find reference to various animals as the cause of this ring of luxuriant growth. Such animals as fallow deer, moles, rabbits, cows and goats were observed to adopt circular patterns of behaviour during courtship or play. The deposition of dung and urine during the course of these events was presumed even and consistent enough to produce the observed effect. Superstitions relating to luck
vary from different sources and are often contradictory. For example, to step inside a fairy ring can bring good or bad luck depending on your source of
the soil in the dead area. This thick layer of mycelium presents an impervious barrier that prevents the grass from getting sufficient water. The fungus lives off organic matter which it breaks down for food but, in doing so, releases nitrogen into the surrounding soil in the form of nitrates and ammonia. This has
Normal grass
Stimulated grass Stunted grass
Toadstool
Growing Point
Mycelium
The toadstools are suitable seats for musicians or tired fairy dancers!
seen between a band of darker green grass, has been attributed to a variety of causes worldwide. In Germany the bare rings were produced by witches performing a ritual dance on Walpurgis Night (April 30th/May 1st) whilst, in the Tyrol, a winged dragon passing over a field at the epoch of Pegasids (10th August) and Martinmas (11th November) branded the grass with its fiery tail. The Dutch meanwhile recognised the marks of evil in these rings, attributing them to places where the devil, in resting his churn, burned the turf. Blemishes which were caused by the Lord of Darkness would not recover as quickly as those produced by natural fire and hence they were observed to take up to seven years to depart.
Scientists as early as the sixteenth century put forward the hypothesis that fairy rings were caused by lightning. Some exponents of the lightning theory go to great lengths to explain how the geometrical considerations of electromagnetic physics, relating to an electrical discharge of this type, cause the turf to be burned more on the perimeter than in the centre. Others took pains to explain how the variations in the size of the ring marks arise.
Bradley in 1789 describes two causes of the fairy ring phenomenon. The bare earth was a path made by burrowing ants which “flung up soil extremely fine” resulting in the improved vigour of grass in the immediate vicinity. He goes on to describe the ring of slime left by slugs and garden snails which go over the same ground at least twenty times in circular courtship. When this slime putrefied it gave rise to the ring of toadstools.
The zone of stimulated grass growth that we often see in some fairy rings is the subject of yet more postulation. Before the introduction of inorganic fertilisers one of the methods which a
information. To have fairy rings in a field near your house was said to bring good fortune but, where two rings joined together, brought bad luck to the area. The dew from the darker grass of the fairy ring was much prized as a cosmetic skin treatment for a maiden’s complexion. It was also used as an ingredient for a love potion. A gentleman by the name of
William Withering (1792) was the first to recognise the true cause of fairy rings to be fungal in origin and, so, once his ideas became accepted, the romantic age of fairies dancing in moonlit meadows began to fade into the mists of children’s bed-time stories. He described one particular fungus Agaricus oreades. Today, we have identified a great many
different species that give rise to fairy rings. The rings themselves are found to occur in three distinct types according to the effects that they have on the turf. The first type of ring has a circle of dead or dying grass inside a larger band of darker grass. In the UK type 1 fairy rings are mainly caused by Marasmius oreades. The toadstools or ‘caps’ of M. oreades are mostly produced within the dead grass area and are reddish tan to buff in colour depending on the soil conditions and other environmental factors. Unlike many other large fungi, caps of M. oreades can withstand long periods of desiccation and, providing they are not disturbed, will re-hydrate when moist weather returns and continue their life cycle.
The ring of dead or dying grass results
from the production of a toxin by the fungal mycelium in the root zone of the turf. The poisoning effect of this toxin is compounded by water stress caused by the presence of the ring of waxy mycelium that can be found just below
Type 1 Fairy Ring
the effect of producing stimulated grass growth in the area adjacent to the fungus.
The subterranean mycelium advances
away from the centre of the ring by six to eighteen inches or more each year. By studying aerial photographs it is possible to estimate the age of fairy rings. In Colorado, rings were reckoned to be 250 - 400 years old, and one in Belfort (France) was found to be about 700 years old, being one quarter of a mile in diameter!
The second type of fairy ring produces a ring of stimulated grass growth in which toadstools or puffballs can be found at certain times of the year. Although this is not as damaging as the type 1 ring, since it does not kill the grass, it is still a disfiguring scar on an area of close mown fine turf such as golf or bowling greens. The dark bands, or ribbons as they are sometimes known, are more evident in long hot dry summers when the surrounding grass tends to lack colour. The third type of fairy ring has only a
circle of toadstools or puffballs, without having a stimulated or a dead area. Also included in this category are those ring forming fungi that are found in woodlands. Type 3 fairy rings are easy to
35
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108 |
Page 109 |
Page 110 |
Page 111 |
Page 112 |
Page 113 |
Page 114 |
Page 115 |
Page 116 |
Page 117 |
Page 118 |
Page 119 |
Page 120