Brewer's: Fairy Rings

Circles of rank or withered grass, often seen in lawns, meadows, and grass-plots. Said to be produced by the fairies dancing on the spot. In sober truth, these rings are simply an agaric or fungus below the surface, which has seeded in a circular range, as many plants do. Where the ring is brown and almost bare, the “spawn” is of a greyish-white colour. The grass dies because the spawn envelops the roots so as to prevent their absorbing moisture; but where the grass is rank the “spawn” is dead, and serves as manure to the young grass.

You demi-puppets, that By moonshine do the green-sour ringlets make, Whereof the ewe not bites.

Shakespeare: Tempest, v. 1.

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