Hi! This is my first time on ANY forum so I hope I'm doing this right We have nasty mushrooms growing out of control under our beautiful crepe myrtle tree (and surrounding area). They are long, conical red-orange stalks with dark brown narrow caps (and a little orange dot at the tip)...I've already dug them out once...then 1 returned and in a few days they had MULTIPLED!!! Sometimes they bring tons of flies (other times not) and sometimes they die on their own (other times not). I'm worried for the tree Any info would be GREATLY appreciated - Thanks alot!

Well first off lets not panic here... as americans we are trained to fear and loth mushrooms (fungiphobes). However mushrooms are at most an indication of poor cultural practices but more often are just part of nature. There are three groups of mushrooms parasites (get energy by taking it from another), saprophyte (get energy by recycling dead matter), or mycorrhizae (symbiotic relationship between a fungi and the roots of a plant). Most of the ones you will encounter are saporophytic and represent no threat. If you would like take a pic and we will see if we can ID it. Oh BTW as you may know the mushroom is only the reproductive body (what the flower is to a plant) the fungi itself is rarely visable. And also just so you know no mushroom is dangerous to touch or even taste DO NOT SWALLOW if you dont know FOR SURE what it is, however this can be said of ANY plant. The risk of plants is way underestimated while mushrooms are over estimated. In excess of 90% of all problems are related to the genus Amanita. Anyways good luck and enjoy your fleshy fruiting fungal bodies!