November 2nd – A good day to find fungi too. After a patchy couple of weeks, there were loads around – shaggy ink caps, earthballs, puffballs, fly agaric and several sorts of russula. Bothe the west shore and Anglesey Basin were good spots.
I particularly liked the age progression of the shaggy ink caps, showing how their curious name is derived.
October 21st – I was lamenting a couple of days ago that the fungus had been poor this year – it hasn’t up on the canal bank near Wharf Lane; I never noticed before, but in a short space, tucked in with the heather and gorse are lots of toadstools.
Mostly, fly agaric, I passed these spotty red wonders a couple of days ago and never noticed.
I’d love to know what the shiny brown one is…
October 17th – I came back from Shenstone just as darkness was falling, and spotted by chance another bountiful crop of autumn. Isolated in the hedgerow at Footherley, a large, impressive and perfect group of mature glistening ink caps. These are toxic, and shouldn’t be touched, but the temptation to is huge. I love their pure white stalks and brown-black, sing caps.
I don’t think the fungi have been so good this year, maybe due to the dry weather – these are rare gems.
September 28th – On a decaying tree stump near the canal just by Bishton, these fine specimens of Dryad’s Saddle polypore fungus. They were huge – dinnerplate sized. The cellular structure on the curled edge is fascinating, too.
September 7th – More fungi today; spotted in open pasture near Longdon, glistening ink caps, and lycoperdon puffballs and rhizopogon earthballs (I may have some, all or none of that wrong, I leave fungi to experts). Considering the relative conformity of plant life in the UK, fungi like this looks almost alien and distinctly odd.
I think that’s why it fascinates me so much.
September 6th – Well, it’s coming on to autumn, and one of the positives about that is fungi. It looks set to be a bumper year, too – caps, toadstools, polypores, puffballs will all put in appearances in the coming weeks.
These gorgeous shaggy ink caps – edible when young – were growing on Brownhills Common, in a spot where I’ve not seen them before. Pretty much perfect specimens.
January 17th – I went up onto the Chase. It wasn’t an inspiring afternoon – there was a good sky, but the light was poor and it seemed to be mostly on the point of raining. The forest was stunningly bleak and beautiful as it ever is in it’s winter jacket, but the going was made tough by the sodden ground. The trails and tracks were all muddy soup, and I was covered in it.
All I want is a week or two without rain, with some bright days. I don’t care if it’s warm or cold – but snow would be nice. Just an end to this ceaseless damp.
November 6th – In Victoria Park, Darlaston, the shaggy mane or ink caps are still growing well. These lovely fungi grow tall and white, then go over quite quickly and, if undisturbed, decay into a black goop in the most fascinating way. Quite tasty when young, these have been sprouting for a month now. Wonderful to see.
October 27th – The fungus, on the whole, is great this year, but the fly agaric remain elusive. My usual best spots for finding this most fairytale of toadstools – up on the canal behind the Terrace at Newtown, on the common opposite Birch Coppice and at Chasewater just by the bypass have all shown poor examples this season. These few decent ones were spotted on the canal bank at Anglesey Basin.
The puffballs – a fine crop – were all growing near Fly Pool on the North Heath at Chasewater. In a few weeks that green gunk inside will be dry, powdery spores, and the fungus will pop open on contact and scatter them on the wind.
The mystery large toadstool was on the canal embankment near Lichfield Road. I have no idea what it was, but it was very large and alive with bugs.
October 20th – There’s some really great fungi growing at the moment on Chasewater Dam, where the trees were removed. I have no idea what they are, and initially, they looked like piles of horse manure. It was only when I got closer I realised what they were. it has just stopped raining, and they glistened wonderfully.
Still can’t find any decent fly agaric this year.
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