I know next-to-nothing about wild fungi, but I like photographing them. On the other side of the road to our house there is a patch of spare ground shaded by Silver Birch and Scots Pine trees. It is a place where lots of fungi grow. This week there has been a sudden flurry of new arrivals.
These ones have appeared in a number of lines, each several metres long:
Initially, when the young ones push up through the grass and leaf litter they are almost spherical, a bit like puffballs
They then gradually open out, a bit like an umbrella or parasol.
The undersides of the mature ones are dark brown and deeply ribbed.
I am certainly not going to risk eating any of these without a positive identification, but does anyone recognise them?
I also saw a few of these, which appear to be a different type:
There were only a few specimens of this type and they all had a distinctive concave cap. They were also a more yellow/cream colour than the other type descibed above, which was a greyish brown.
I'm like you very wary of fungi! They seem to be following tree roots.
ReplyDeleteI find fungi fascinating but I know nothing about them. I bet we see loads which would be safe to eat, but I don't think you can be too careful.
ReplyDeleteMushroom foraging would be a bit difficult I think, they look good but suppose many are quite deadly.
ReplyDeleteI know nothing about what fungi is which. We used to have a lot of mushrooms popping up at our last house. All sorts of different kinds. My dog would eat them as would the squirrels. But I wasn't going to touch them.
ReplyDeleteI do not know these fungi (maybe a Russula?) - but I follow a simple rule when foraging mushrooms: do not pick anything with ribbed undersides (majority of mushrooms with those ribbed undersides are poisonous or non edible, namely in the Czech Republic), only with tubes (and even those shall be examined first).
ReplyDeleteMushrooms are magical I think! When I was very young, my dad used to take me and my siblings out at dawn to forage for mushrooms on the airfields (he was a Naval pilot) - he must have had a good idea of what he was doing as we're all still here to tell the tale but I'm not sure that I'd risk it now! I wish I knew more though as I really enjoy eating mushrooms!
ReplyDeleteI'm always tempted to pick and use the mushrooms that I see on my walks, but I'm too scared.
ReplyDeleteThey look so delicious but when you hear such horror stories, I think I'll leave well alone :$
Fantastic photos!