Category Archives: fungi

Earthtongues

02 Friday Dec 2022

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Well, these were a surprise sighting from the beginning of today’s walk. They were growing on a road verge, next to a block of flats, in an area now called Penarth Marina but which was once Penarth Port, a huge area of working dockland.

221202 earthtongues (1)

This seems a bizarre place for earthtongues to be growing – the First Nature website explains that this species, which I’m fairly sure is Geoglossum cookeanum, is found ‘mainly in mossy, sandy grassland, often in dune slacks or on the edges of coastal pine forests’.

221202 earthtongues (2)

Brown rollrims

18 Friday Nov 2022

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I initially thought these were a type of funnel fungi, one of the several Clitocybe species perhaps but, as I’m only too well aware that I’ve forgotten most of what I ever knew – never much – about fungi identification, I consulted an expert, Emma [@Coalspoilfungi on Twitter]. Turns out I was wrong – no surprise there!

221118 paxillus involutus (1)

These are Brown rollrims (Paxillus involutus) and they were massive, the biggest at least 12 inches across. They were growing on a grassy verge, next to a very busy local road. Emma told me: ‘They would have been viscid when wet, but when dry, [are] the texture of silky soft pig leather. Gills, cap and stem bruise easily deep red /orange to dark brown / Blackening slowly.’ Fungi are just so fascinating!

221118 paxillus involutus (2)

Dusky puffball

11 Friday Nov 2022

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As you can see, the Dusky puffball (Lycoperdon nigrescens) is very similar to the Common puffball but its skin is darker. Specimens are primarily found in coniferous woodland (mine was fruiting in a section of a local cemetery planted with various species of conifer), though these flexible puffballs can also be found growing amongst the dunes at the seaside and in the acid soils of heathland. According to Pat O’Reilly in his book Fascinated by Fungi, these fungi emit ‘an unpleasant gassy smell’ when their flesh is cut. I didn’t check!

221111 Dusky Puffball

The ballerina and the slug

28 Friday Oct 2022

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Two slugs in one week – what were the chances? But when I glimpsed this gorgeous Pink waxcap (also known as the Ballerina waxcap) (Hygrocybe calyptriformis) almost hidden in a small grassy hollow and gently smoothed back the grass around it to take my photo, I found this Large red slug nestled alongside. If a slug could smile, this one would be grinning from ear to ear, and I imagine the waxcap had mostly been consumed by the next morning.

221028 pink waxcap large red slug

Lemon disco, probably

21 Friday Oct 2022

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Lemon Disco (Bisporella citrina) – I used probably in the title because I can’t confirm that identification microscopically – is one of the most common discos. And, at this time of the year, when the daylight hours are shortening and the weather can be wet and grey, it’s a delight to find these bright bursts of yellow, sometimes in their thousands, during a woodland wander.

221021 lemon disco

Shaggy inkcaps

19 Wednesday Oct 2022

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They might look sturdy but these Shaggy inkcaps (Coprinus comatus) from yesterday’s walk would probably be gone if I had walked this way again today. You can see the taller one in the centre has already turned to mush, in the process producing a black ink that some people use for their artworks (see, for example, this work by Jo Brown, who creates amazing art inspired by fungi, and the rest of the natural world).

221019 shaggy inkcap