Oct 13th Mousehold Heath

Gills of a Tawny Funnel

It was Fungi Foray Day at Mousehold Heath today. Dr Tony Leech, our fungi expert, led the large group of fungi enthusiasts and complete novices (such as myself) around the site in search of these fascinating organisms. I have been on several of Tony's walks through the years and we always get so engrossed in our search that we barely get far before our time begins to over run.

Tony filling his basket with fungi

Sharing his knowledge with us

Sessile Earthstar

Of course, partly thanks to people bringing along their own fungi, it took a while to get out of the car park. One of the fungi brought over happens to be an earthstar, a Sessile earthstar. As you may know I have been looking for one with no success, so it is nice that one comes to me for a change. An earthstar is basically a puffball with petals that fold beneath it and was ripe enough to release its spores like a puff of smoke. I still want to find one for myself though, one day.

Yellow Stainer (I think)

Hairy Curtain Crust

Honey Fungus

Autumn colour

After finally leaving the car park with a look at some honey fungus, we entered an area of grassland beside the roadside. We ended up finding so many fungi, that we spent most of our time in this area, gradually nearing the woodland edge. We went to find the fungi and brought them back to Tony to identify. He is a fountain of knowledge when it comes to fungi, giving both english and scientific names. There were so many names that I am finding it hard to remember any of them now that he has told me. And it wasn't just names, Tony wasn't afraid to taste or smell them either or cut them up to show us the structures inside that helps in identifying the various species.

Tawny Funnel

This area of grassland provided a lot of little gems, from yellow spindles to waxcaps, and in a spot Will once created a bonfire, some tiny cup fungi were growing from the ashes. We also found the odd fly agarics, blushers, turkeytails, milkcaps and many other fungi. Here are a few of what we collected...

Plums and Custard

Yellow Spindles

Waxcap

Can't remember what this is

Brown Rollrim or a brittlegill (can't quite remember)

Milkcap seeping 'milk'

Milkcap

Some kind of cup fungus we found on the remains of a bonfire

Forgotten this one too

Sulphur Tuft

Common Frog

Not sure

Deceiver

Fly Agaric

Fly Agaric

Blushier

 In the woods, we found even more fungi. Brown rollrims, amethyst deceivers and bay boletes, candlesnuff, blushing brackets and shaggy scalycaps, just a few of the many toadstools, brackets and other strange fungi that we found here.

Brown Rollrim (gills)

Brown Rollrim

Can't remember

Bay Bolete

Underside of Bay Bolete is full of tiny tubes instead of gills

Amethyst Deceiver

Two of the many sizes of an Amethyst Deceiver

Gills an Amethyst Deceiver

Smokey Bracket (left) and Turkeytail (right)

Turkeytail

No Idea

Underside of a Blushing Bracket

Shaggy Scalycap

Tony's basket full of fungi

Birch Polypore

Slime Mould

Candlesnuff

Tufted Tuftshank

Stinkhorn

Eventually, we returned to the car park, finding a stinkhorn along the way (which really smells bad and from a distance). But before we left, I decided to go to the new pond very quickly as last year we discovered that orange peel fungus grows around the pond. There were specks of them here today, but they weren't as impressive as last year. Most of them were small cup like things, but a few specimens were at a resonable size, looking like discarded bits of orange peel. Once you notice them, it is hard to miss them as they are bright orange.

Orange Peel Fungus