13 Friday Feb 2026
Posted in fungi
I found these Split gill fungi (Schizophyllum commune) last November but had so many other things to share at that point that these didn’t make the cut.
I’d found the same species on another tree in this Cardiff Park once before but this fallen Oak and the huge colony of Split gill fungi growing on it were more than I’d ever seen before. It’s a fungus that always intrigues me, with its bland furry upper side that gives no hint of the stunning sculptural structure beneath.
06 Friday Feb 2026
Mist, rain, drizzle, fog, mizzle … almost every single day this year our weather has been some variation or other of wet. Some might say this is good weather for ducks, though most of the ducks I see look as miserable in the rain as most of the people I see.
This is, however, good weather for a lot of fungi and, during a recent walk, I noticed how lush and plump this Tripe fungus (Auricularia mesenterica) was looking.
30 Friday Jan 2026
Posted in fungi
It’s been a very long time since I blogged about this fascinating fungus, Birch polypore (Piptoporus betulinus), also known as Razorstrop fungus, because, as I explained in An essential piece of traveller’s kit (8 February 2016), barbers once used the hard surface of this fungus to sharpen their cut-throat razors.
Birch polypore is a rotter, literally; its powers of decomposition are strong, mostly acting on the wood of dead Birches (Betulinus species) but, as Pat O’Reilly writes in Fascinated by Fungi, it may also ‘be parasitic on weakened birches’. I found this lovely specimen feeding on a dead Birch in a Cardiff park earlier this week.
16 Friday Jan 2026
Posted in fungi
A simple scene from the woodland floor is the subject of today’s post, a miniature landscape painted by Nature of a sheltered spot where the fallen leaves haven’t yet disintegrated into mush and the tiny black-and-white fingers of Candlesnuff fungi have emerged from a small branch to reach up as far as they can so that their spores can be dispersed amongst the trees. It’s a scene we have probably all walked past and ignored, and yet it’s really quite beautiful if we take the time to look.
22 Monday Dec 2025
As I know I’ve stated on this blog many times before, the various species of Oak tree (Quercus species) play host to a huge number of organisms of many types, forms, and colours. These are some I’ve been lucky to see this year: two species of fungus, the Oak mazegill (21 November) and Black bulgur (Fungi: Black bulgar, 24 October); several species of bug that have all featured in this update already (B is for bugs and beetles) but are worth another mention as they spend all or most of their lives on Oak trees: Cyllecoris histrionius, adult and nymph (12 May), Rhabdomiris striatellus (10 June), and Bug: Megacoelum infusum (12 September).
I also managed to find several Common quaker (Orthosia cerasi) caterpillars on a single Oak (included in Cool cats, 2, 5 June); the gorgeous lacewing shown above that has since been verified as Hemerobius micans and is found especially on mature oaks (Two lacewings, 4 September); the folded-over Oak leaf lobes created by a gall midge (Galls: Macrodiplosis pustularis, 2 June); and the stunning little Acorn weevil, shown below, that lives in Oak trees and lays its eggs inside acorns (Weevil: Curculio glandium, 1 August).
19 Friday Dec 2025
Nest: noun; a structure built by birds or insects to leave their eggs in to develop, and by some other animals to give birth or live in (Cambridge Dictionary).
In January, I spotted a Nuthatch excavating a hole in a tree in which to make its nest (Nest excavation, 25 January), though on subsequent visits the hole seemed to have been abandoned.
At the end of March, during one of my local meanders, the screeching of several Rooks drew my eyes upwards to discover several nests, with adults feeding well grown but ever hungry chicks (A new rookery, 2 April).
When is a nest not a nest? Check out the Cyathus striatus fungi I wrote about at the end of January (Fluted bird’s nest fungi, 31 January).
10 Wednesday Dec 2025
Posted in fungi
I just checked – I haven’t posted any photos of earthstars since December 2023. As they were the inspiration for the name of this blog (though the name is also meant to encompass all the flora and fauna that are the environmental stars on this amazing Earth), I really think they should feature here at least once a year.
These particular Collared earthstars (Geastrum triplex) were photographed in both the old and new sections of Cardiff’s Cathays Cemetery last week.
09 Tuesday Dec 2025
Posted in fungi
Finding Date waxcaps fruiting on a local road verge on 15 October was, without a doubt, the highlight of 2025 as far as fungi finds go. What a treat they were, and, as with yesterday’s Choughs, completely unexpected, particularly in such an urban setting.
05 Friday Dec 2025
Posted in fungi
In fact, you probably wouldn’t want to eat the other form of tripe, the stomach lining of cows, pigs and sheep, either, unless you were desperate, and definitely not if, like me, you’re a vegetarian.
I’ve only ever seen Tripe fungus (Auricularia mesenterica) in a couple of different places before today, so it was good to add a new site to my list.
There’s one particular location I know, where the fungus can be seen year round on the stump of a long dead Elm tree, in summer looking just like a grouping of dried, shrivelled brackets but, in winter, when they’ve rehydrated, plump and hairy like these ones I found today.
The various species of Elm are where Tripe grows most commonly and, though today’s new location was a large fallen tree trunk that could have been any species of tree, I had previously found Wrinkled peach growing on it, another Elm-specific fungus.
21 Friday Nov 2025
Tags
bracket fungi, British fungi, Daedalea quercina, fungi on Oak, mazegill fungi, mazegills, Oak mazegill
I’m sure I must have seen these stunning bracket fungi, Oak mazegill (Daedalea quercina), before this week but I have no images of them on my laptop. Growing on a huge old fallen Oak – they always grow on Oak (i.e. Quercus species), hence the quercina epithet, consuming dead fallen and still standing trees and large branches, these brackets grow annually, eventually reaching a thickness of 10cm and a diameter of 20cm. And, as you can see from my photos, the fertile surface (i.e. the underside of the bracket, from which the spores are released) has maze-like channels, which explains the mazegill name.
Pat O’Reilly, in his book Fascinated by Fungi, explains that its generic name (Daedalea) refers to Daedalus, the legendary figure who supposedly designed the maze on ancient Crete, in which Pasiphaë, wife of King Minos, hid her offspring the Minotaur, half man and half bull.
O’Reilly’s book also includes a couple of other fascinating facts about Oak mazegill:
This fungus was valued by beekeepers who used the smoke from smouldering fruitbodies to anaesthetise bees. Once the bees had been calmed by the dense smoke, the beekeeper could open a hive and work on it without triggering painful panic reactions by the occupants.
The deep, hard-wearing channels make these tough and durable brackets very handy as combs for grooming horses – one of their traditional uses.
earthstar 
You must be logged in to post a comment.