There is a lot to see in the coastal forest, here in my area, these days ... and in today's post I'm continuing the journey that started a few days ago, on the last Fungi Friday.
The edible mushroom on this opening shot it's a bolete ... the Leccinellum lepidum bolete, precisely. It's a young, fresh & firm fruit body, ideal for some mushroom cooking later at home. On the following photograph ...
... you can see another Leccinellum lepidum. An older one ... still perfectly edible ... but softer, slightly slimy and less appetizing.
The thing on this photograph looks like something pretty different ... but ... it's actually the same kind of bolete ... only covered with Hypomyces chrysospermus, a parasitic fungus that grows on bolete mushrooms, turning the afflicted host ... into this. On the following shot ...
... you can see the top of the cap, still free from parasite ... and a bit of original color that shows that this is actually just another Leccinellum lepidum. While photographing this strange, infested mushroom that looks like a ghost of the bolete ...
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... I noticed a beautiful frog, well camouflaged just a meter or so from me. This is the very agile Rana dalmatina ... I encounter this species very rarely.
Just like in the first post of this series ... you'll see a lot of mushrooms from the Russulaceae family here.
These are some Lactarius ... I don't know the exact species.
Red or Reddish colored Russulas are present everywhere, playing a big part in making this autumn vivid and colorful. This one has emerged very recently.
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Here is a red trio in various stages of development.
Here you can see another trio ... in a slightly different composition.
This small Russula ended up on the photograph because of the nice, complementary (in the sense of complementary colors) relation with the soft, young sprout of the Rubia peregrina plant.
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Here is a different view of the same scene ... from a different angle that reveals the stem of the mushroom ... and on the following photograph ...
... taken with the camera mounted in the shallow hole I dug for the occasion ... the gills are also visible.
The shape of most mushrooms requires at least two photographs for everything to be shown.
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The elegant mushroom on these photograph (on the previous shot and on the following one as well) is some species of the genus Cortinarius ...
... a very dangerous group, due to the lethality and really ugly set of symptoms of quite a few species and the great similarity between various Cortinarius.
While waking along one of the many small roads surrounded by dense and intricate vegetation ...
I noticed some pretty large white spheres coming out of the ground.
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The Suillia fuscicornis fly was resting on one of them. This species can often be seen around mushrooms in the woods ... even later in autumn when practically all other insects disappear from sight.
Many mushrooms begin their existence like this, like a generic looking spheres, that's why is pretty dangerous and confusing pick them at this stage. This one is coming out of an egg - like envelope ... so the first thought is - some kind of Amanita, highly poisonous probably ... but ...
... just a few steps further, under the first line of shrubs and small trees ... some of these mushrooms have spread their umbrellas ... and the iconic elegant veil around the cap ...
... along with some less visible details of the gills and the specific, slightly unpleasant dash of ammonia makes it clear that this is the Amanita ovoidea. Despite the smell ... which is more confusing than unpleasant really ... this is a very tasty and meaty edible from the woods.
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This is actually one of my favorite mushrooms ... I like how they look ... I like how meaty they are when prepared as a meal ... and also, I like the fact that nobody that I know here in the area picks them, so they are always there for me ... even in very visible places along the small roads.
With the Cantharellus cibarius on the other hand ... it's a completely different story ... they are delicious and known to many, so without some secret gardens deep in the forest the meal can't be taken for granted.
Craterellus cornucopioides is another delicious species. I like to eat them in many ways ... often chewing them raw while photographing or picking other mushrooms. They have a very specific and pleasant taste when raw ... a bit like hazelnuts, walnuts, stuff like that ... it's hard to define, but it has something in common with aforementioned nuts. In this forest they appear in epic quantities so there is always enough for everyone. On this shot they are clearly visible against the vivid green background of the moss ...
but I find them growing like that very rarely ... usually they are very well camouflaged among the dark brown shades of the forest floor and pretty hard to notice - even harder to show on photograph without some artificial background. I was very happy when I found this group that looked cool in the natural environment.
I saw the mushroom on the following photograph ...
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... only once in my life ... when exploring the forest for this series of posts. It looks very cool in my opinion. That's all I can tell you about this species.
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The abundance of fungi in this place can be overwhelming, it's hard to find a spot to sit down without smashing a mushroom or two ... and they sometimes grow in colorful groups made of two or more different species. The lovely arrangement on the following photograph ...
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... is made of some elegant brown caps ... a red cap of some red Russula species ... and a beautiful red berry ...
... fallen from the Ruscus aculeatus plant ...
... called also the Butcher's-broom.
Small dry branches sometimes fall from higher Ruscus plants and end up caught on the branches and sprouts of smaller plants of the same species.
This decaying leaf reveals a strong and elegant fibrous structure, usually hidden underneath the smooth green surface.
This is a very hard, elastic and resilient plant filled with strong thorns ... each leaf has one, and there is plenty of foliage on every plant.
In some places Ruscus aculeatus grows very densely, making the walk across those parts of the forest a painful experience in spring and summer, when hot days demand lighter clothing.
On this shot the Ruscus aculeatus is intertwined with another thorny inconvenience from these woods ...
... the Smilax aspera. This climbing plant hangs all around shrubs and trees and is very elastic, resilient, practically unbreakable with bare hands ... you have to cut it if you want to get rid of it. It's covered with small but painful thorns all along the stems and lower parts of the leaves ... it's annoying, sticky, looks and feels like some vegetal monster with thousands of tentacles .... but just like Ruscus aculeatus, it has some beautiful red fruits that contribute a lot to the beauty of this colorful season.
The best way to move through this kind of vegetation is to crawl under the thorny tentacles. And here, crouched among the fallen leaves in the thorn - free area, a man can observe and photograph many interesting mushrooms, at his leisure.On this shot you can see an old, decomposing Russula grata.
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This is a very different mushroom ... a pretty fragile and elegant one ... I don't know the species ... could be something from the Oudemansiella genus of the Physalacriaceae family ... but this is an extremely vague, unsure statement - it has the same value as saying nothing at all.
This is the small and lovely Lepiota magnispora. It's considered inedible not poisonous ... I never read or heard anything about its taste ... there is little or no incentive to try it because is small and can be mistaken with other small poisonous Lepiota species.
While I was sitting on the forest floor, photographing the surrounding mushrooms ...
... quite a few arachnids appeared from underneath the wet carpet made of fallen leaves.
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I took a few shots of this pretty large spider ...
... well camouflaged on this terrain ...
... and just one shot of this small pale species ... because this spider quickly disappeared under the rotting foliage when I tried to take another photograph with the flash on.
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A harvestman was also there ... and it looked slightly different from those usual harvestmen that I regularly see on the shrubs and meadows.
Some fungi were growing on dead trunks and branches ...
... accelerating the decomposition of all that rotting wood ...
... scattered all around the forest floor.
This small, fuzzy one was also growing on dead wood ... on a fallen twig.
Here you can take a look at the gills on the other side.
This vividly yellow, jelly - like Tremella mesenterica is also sprouting from a fallen branch.
The hypholoma fasciculare mushrooms are also vivid and yellow.
They grow in large groups ... mostly on old, rotting stumps. This is a poisonous mushroom.
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I don't know the name of this species ... or anything about their eventual edibility or toxicity ... these are pretty large mushrooms that grow in impressive groups, rows, half rings or rings.
I took quite a few shots ... because I like these large or long mushroom formations very much.
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I saw plenty of cool and beautiful stuff while shooting for these posts.
This was one of the many highlights.
This is a pretty large and nicely developed Amanita pantherina ... a very poisonous species ... on the following photograph ...
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... you can take a look underneath the cap of this mushroom.
Here is another large and robust species I don't know anything about.
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From this angle it looks larger and more epic ... and now ... with the following shot ...
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... is time to leave the shady woods and take a short walk out on the open ... at the forest's edge ... on the winding road along the sea shore.
Here you can see the yellow flowers of the Genista tinctoria ... and on the following photograph ...
... you can take a better, more up close look at those flowers.
Here you can see a detail of another beautiful wild flower ...
... the Althaea cannabina.
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The structure in the center of the flower is pretty intricate ... and looks great in enlargeable macro view.
I see these flowers very rarely here in my area.
Here on the narrow coastal belt of vegetation typical for the meadows, some insects are still active and visible.
The leaf beetle from the Genus Galeruca (I can't tell you the exact species because I found quite a few very similar, practically identical looking species present in Europe, through my internet search) is resting on some large leaf covered with tiny droplets.
This, with enlarged abdomen, is the female ... while on the following photograph ...
... you can take a look at the male.
The males look the same in all aspects ... except for the abdomen.
A bit further ... between the leaves of a neighboring plant of the same kind ...
... I saw a pair of these beetles mating. It's always surprising to see these springtime insect activities so late in the year, with colder days just around the corner.
I photographed this minuscule planthopper while sitting in the same place ... and then ...
... a few steps later, when I stretched my legs a bit ... I found this elegant small mushroom ...
... that will end this post - THE END.
As always in these posts on HIVE, all the photographs are my work ... and all were taken in between 22 and 25.10.2020.