[On the cusp of September & October 1999 four specimens returned to the berm.]

MUTINUS ELEGANS

This voluntary & wild mushroom 
springs up where leaves have been gathered, heaped, 
& left to rot, 
on the western flank of the 
'Bee Berm', 
which derives its name from the fact that 
it rises on rotting logs from the 
'Bee Tree', 
a hollowed black oak 
that once did house bees, 
but they providentially departed well before 
Hurricane Bob split the twin oak wide open 
& left the logs. 

The botanical name derives, 
through taxonomy both learned & metaphorical, 
from the Latin Mutinus, 'Roman god of matrons', 
& elegans, 'dainty, choosy, nice'.