Fifty shades of brown, a soupçon of purple and a smattering of red – that about sums up my Friday fungi foray around Cefn On, one of my local Cardiff parks. A friend had posted a few finds from his walk there the previous day on the Glamorgan Fungi page on Facebook so it looked like a sure bet and, although I get the train up there, it’s a nice long walk back through Coed-y-Felin woods, around Llanishen Reservoir, through Nant Fawr woodland and alongside Roath Lake – about 7 miles all up but almost entirely through woods, parks and green places, so perfect!

After the recent rains and with temperatures still warm during the day but dropping now overnight, Cefn On was alive with fungi and I got lots of photographs. Unfortunately, fungi are notoriously difficult to identify. What does it smell like? What colour are the spores? How big / small / wide / tall was it? Was it slimy or dry? Where was it growing? These are just a few of the questions you need to ask. I do try to work out what I have found but some things are only identifiable through microscopic analysis so, these days, I mostly just enjoy looking at them and admiring their multitude of shapes and forms and habits and colours.