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earthstar

~ a celebration of nature

earthstar

Tag Archives: fungi

E is for earthstar, the eponymous fungus

10 Wednesday Dec 2025

Posted by sconzani in fungi

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Tags

British fungi, collared earthstar, earthstar, Earthstar fungi, fungi, Geastrum triplex

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.

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Disco for slugs

01 Friday Nov 2024

Posted by sconzani in autumn, fungi, molluscs

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Tags

British fungi, British molluscs, British slugs, fungi, Lemon disco, slug

Who knew slugs liked disco? Lemon disco, that is. The fungus, not the John Travolta – Saturday Night Fever – Bee Gees – strobing lights type of disco. This particular slug certainly did, as it had paused its slithering to taste the delicate little yellow cups.

241101 slug and lemon disco

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Elvish beauty

09 Tuesday Feb 2021

Posted by sconzani in fungi, nature, winter

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

British fungi, Elfcups, fungi, red elfcups, Ruby elfcup, Scarlet elfcup, woodland fungi

As I walked through a local woodland yesterday, in light sleet and a biting wind, I was seduced by these gorgeous elfcups, punctuating the dull greens and dirty browns with their glorious pops of bright red.

210209 red elfcups (1)

And there were lots of them: tucked under draping fern fronds, nestled amongst lush mosses, almost every rotting log and every broken branch had its cup of scarlet (or ruby) red.

210209 red elfcups (2)

I’m not sure if anyone has ever checked, microscopically, to determine whether the elfcups in these woodlands are Scarlet (Sarcoscypha austriaca) or Ruby (Sarcoscypha coccinea).

210209 red elfcups (3)

And, though it would certainly be good to add them to the local biodiversity records, it was enough yesterday to simply feast my eyes on their magical elvish beauty.

210209 red elfcups (4)

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Dead man’s fingers

29 Friday Jan 2021

Posted by sconzani in fungi, nature

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Tags

British fungi, Dead man's fingers, fungi, wood-rotting fungi, Xylaria polymorpha

210129 dead man's fingers
Be afraid! A dead man is poking his rotting blackened fingers up from the leaf litter, reaching for the passing ankles of unwary walkers.

Nah, not really, though the ‘fingers’ – really the fungal fruiting bodies of the aptly named Dead man’s fingers (Xylaria polymorpha) – can look rather spooky when first encountered.

As the First Nature website explains, these wood-rotting fungi play an important environmental role:

they specialise in consuming neither the softish cellulose nor the much tougher lignin but rather the polysaccharides … As a result, when these and various other ascomycetous fungi have consumed what they can of a dead stump the remainder is a nutrient-rich soft mess that insects and other small creatures are able to feed upon.

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346/366 A fungal selection

11 Friday Dec 2020

Posted by sconzani in fungi, winter

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Tags

British fungi, Common grey disco, Coral spot, Frosty bonnet, fungi, Jelly ear, King Alfred's Cakes, Lemon disco, Velvet shank, woodland fungi

Today, a selection of fungi spotted during my recent walks. Although I’ve named these fungi, my identifications are not based on microscopic examination and so cannot be positively confirmed.

The fungi are, I think, Coral spot (Nectria cinnabarina), Jelly ear (Auricularia auricula-judae), King Alfred’s cakes (Daldinia concentrica), and Velvet shank (Flammulina velutipes). And under the rotting logs in the woodland: Common grey disco (Mollisia cinerea), Lemon disco (Bisporella citrina), and Frosty bonnet (Mycena tenerrima).

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298/365 More good weather for slugs

25 Friday Oct 2019

Posted by sconzani in autumn, molluscs, nature

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

autumn weather, berries, fungi, slugs, wet weather

191025 slugs (1)

Wales is once again living up to its reputation for being a wet country, a fact about which I may not be particularly happy but the slugs are once again / still loving it.

191025 slugs (2)

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Fungi Friday: Turkey tails

21 Friday Dec 2018

Posted by sconzani in fungi, nature

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

#FungiFriday, British fungi, fungi, fungus, Trametes versicolor, Turkey tail, Turkeytail

I’ve been collecting these images of Turkey tail fungi (Trametes versicolor) for the past couple of months, thinking they would be appropriate for the last Fungi Friday before Christmas seeing as how a lot of people eat turkey for their Christmas dinner.
So, merry feasting … but not on these!

181221 turkey tails (1)

181221 turkey tails (2)
181221 turkey tails (3)
181221 turkey tails (4)
181221 turkey tails (5)
181221 turkey tails (6)
181221 turkey tails (7)
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Image

Fungi as art

07 Friday Dec 2018

Tags

fungi, fungi as art, fungus, gills, sculptural fungi, white fungus, white mushroom

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

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Posted by sconzani | Filed under fungi, nature

≈ 3 Comments

A slimy Monday

27 Tuesday Nov 2018

Posted by sconzani in fungi, nature

≈ 7 Comments

Tags

Cogan Wood, Cosmeston, Cosmeston Lakes Country Park, fungi, slime, slime mould

Cosmeston was relatively quiet yesterday. A few Redwings flashed their rusty flanks at me, indignant that I had interrupted their grazing in the west paddock, and a pair of Mistle thrushes screeched their football-rattle call from the tree tops as the Redwings flew up to join them. Carrion crows and Grey squirrels hovered on the periphery, watching as I fed seed to a posse of passerines in Cogan Wood, but the hoped-for Marsh tit did not appear. So, I abandoned the birds, headed up and along the muddy woodland tracks where few people venture, eyes down and searching for fungi. Within minutes, my hand was scratched from reaching too carelessly through brambles, my fingers were filthy from picking up rotting wood to examine more closely, my camera was speckled with dirt from being plonked on the ground for better close-ups, but my reward was this most wonderful slime mould. I don’t know its name but I am a huge admirer of these enigmatic organisms, and this one was a beauty!

181127 slime (1)181127 slime (2)181127 slime (3)181127 slime (4)181127 slime (5)

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Image

The cheek of it

12 Friday Oct 2018

Tags

#FungiFriday, fungi, fungus, unidentified fungus

181012 fungi friday

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Posted by sconzani | Filed under autumn, fungi, nature

≈ 4 Comments

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About me

sconzani

sconzani

I'm a writer and photographer; researcher and blogger; birder and nature lover; countryside rambler and city strider; volunteer and biodiversity recorder.

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