After my previous post Autumnal Mushrooms, I was eager to head back out and look for more! Yesterday we decided to head out to a different place to see what else we could find.
Top of my list is the Fly Agaric (Amanita muscaria), a species which is well known in many places as the 'classic' mushroom. I had only seen this species once before many years ago, and would love to see it again.
With a bit of research, we learned that it is often asscociated with Birch Tree's, so my partner @dawnsart picked out a local wood which had plenty of Birch, we packed our cameras and set off...
Here is a link to the Roughton Moor Wood Nature Reserve
This was the view before us... prime mushroom habitat... and it didn't take us long to find our first one!
Unknown - possibly a type of Honey fungus (Armillaria species?)
This one looks very... um, phallic! Not sure on the ID of this one. My partner suggested a Bell-end Mushroom, which is apt, but probably not correct. 😉😄
I should mention here, I don't know a great deal about mushrooms. Insects are easy, and I can ID some plants, but mushrooms are new territory. All my ID attempts are just educated guesses, if you think you know better and can give the correct name, then please leave a comment!
Anyway, lets see what else there is...
Tawny Grisette - Amanita fulva?
This one is easy (he says, crossing his fingers. This is a Sulphur Tuft, which is one I have seen before, and is very common around here.
And this is easy as well! This is the Fly Agaric I was looking for, although it looks a bit worse for wear and looks to have been kicked or stepped on.
Thats really annoying, but at least I know they are found here in this location,
Oh! Now this is interesting. I think this might be an Amethyst Deceiver (Laccaria amethystina). This one is new to me... It is apparently widespread and common here in the UK.
There were quite a few of these dotted around a small patch of woodland, really interesting to find.
And then further down the path I found some more Purple mushrooms. Are these the same? I'm not sure to be honest. The stalk is a different colour and the edge of the cap has a different texture to the previous ones...
And then I found an interesting looking Bracket Fungi... I believe this is a Blushing Bracket (Daedaleopsis confragosa).
Again, I am open to suggestions/confirmations of identification... This was just a small selection of the fungi we saw that day. I reckon we saw at least 30 species in the space of 2 hours.
I will finish this post with two more:
This chunky mushroom is one of the Aminita family (I think!)...
And this delicate little one is possibly one of the 'Bonnet' Family. I politely asked the 7-spot Ladybird to pose next to it for scale, and she very kindly said yes!
I'll save the rest of the mushroom extravaganza for another time i.e. once I have had a nap and then tackled the identification books again.
All my ID attempts are just educated guesses, if you think you know better and can give the correct name, then please leave a comment!
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