Ársrit Ræktunarfélags Norðurlands - 01.01.1987, Page 78

ENGLISH SUMMARY
FAIRY RINGS IN ICELAND
In Iceland, very few observations have been made on the phenomenon
called „fairy ring“. Although circular rows of certain mushrooms are very
common e.g.around young trees in new forest areas or in hay fields and
meadows, differences in grass growht are seldom noticed in connection with
them.
The only example from the literature, is from Ytri-Tunga, a farm on the
west side of Tjörnes peninsula, near Húsavík, NE-Iceland, where „green
stripes" were observed in home fields and heather moors in the years about
1920-1970, mowing about its breath every year, but no fungi were reported
thereby (Ingólfur Davíðsson 1960).
In summer 1987 the author was lucky to detect two well developed fairy
rings in the hay field at the farm Droplaugarstaðir in Fljótsdalur, E-Ice-
land. The rings were abour '/4 and !ó of a circle, 28 and 17 m in diameter,
respectively. The grass in the ring zone was dark-green and vigorous, as
compared with the average. There was only a simple green zone present,
but no trace of a „dead zone“ could be seen.
The mushrooms causing these rings were determinded as Melanoleuca
strictipes, with some hesitation. They grew solitary or in small clusters at the
inner side of the green grass zone, and were of different age. These mush-
rooms have been found many times in the same hay field, since 1962, but
any green stripes at these occasions have not been noticed.
The author believs the unusual weather conditions in the spring and
summer 1987 in Eastern Iceland (i.e. very warm and wet), may have been
the deciding factor for development of these fairy rings.
HEIMILDIR — REFERENCES
Dissing, Henri: Introduktion til svampe. Köbenhavn 1981.
Guðbrandur Magnússon: Nornabaugar. Týli 13 (1):30. 1983.
Helgi Hallgrímsson: Islenskir matsveppir. Garðyrkjuritið 1969.
Helgi Hallgrímsson: Sveppakverið Rvík, 1979.
Helgi Hallgrímsson: The family Geoglossaceae in Iceland. Acta botanica is-
landica 9:61-67, 1987.
Ingólfur Davíðsson: Nornabaugar. Náttúrufr., 30 (4): 187-190. 1960.
Jóhannes Björnsson / H. Hg.: Undarlegt fyrirbœn. Týli 3(2):74-75. 1973.
Michael, E., B. Hennig & H. Kreisel: Handbuch fiir Pilzfreunde. IV. Band.
Jena 1981.
Rasmussen, Torben G.: Hekseringe — ökologi og kulturhistorie. Svampe
(Köbenhavn), 6. árg. 1982: 89-94.
Schantz, H. L. & R. L. Piemeisel: Fungs fairy rings in Eastern Colorado and their
effect on vegetation. J. Agric. Res. 11:191-245. 1917.
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