Mushroom of the Month - November 2009

Earthstars are like busses: they keep you waiting for ages and then suddenly a whole host of them arrive at once. We go for years without stumbling across these remarkable fungi and then, when conditions suit them, we have a bumper year (as it seems, in some places at least, we have been enjoying this year). The earthstars shown above are Geastrum triplex, commonly referred to as the 'collared earthstar' because in many instances the arms crack as they bend, with the result that the spore case seems to be sitting on a separate saucer-like layer.

The opening on the top of the spore-sac is pointed at first, and is surrounded by a fuzzy ring slightly paler fawn-brown than the rest of the spore-sac outer surface.

Look in woodland for this member of the (hopelessly jumbled, taxonomically, but useful from an identification point of view) Gastromycetes group. They are most often found under hardwood trees, but we have also found them in coniferous woodland and in parkland under Coast Redwood trees. Collared earthstars are larger than other earthstar species, and they have a spore-sac diameter up to 5cm and arms that span twice that distance when fully outstretched. If you cut through a young fruitbody the interior is white, but it gradually turns into a dark brown powdery mass as the spores mature. Spores are emitted from the apical hole as breezes blow across it, and much larger puffs of spores escape when raindrops hit and compress the spore-sac.

Earthstars are mysterious mushrooms. Why, for example, do some collared earthstars split open with just four rays while others produce five, six, seven or occasionally eight rays? Let us know if you have seen specimens with more than eight rays...

For pictures of more earthstars and other Gastromycetes fungi see www.first-nature.com/fungi/gasteromycetes/

Mushroom of the Month - October 2009

Sarcodon imbricatus is a rare mushroom in southern Britain but increasingly more plentiful as you go further north, so that in the Caledonian Forest of northern Scotland these remarkable hedgehog fungi are quite a common sight.

When fully expanded the caps can be up to 15cm and occasionally 20cm across. The name 'sarcodon' means scaly tooth, and indeed the cap surface breaks up into sparply-pointed scales towards the centre while the underside of the cap has a spore-bearing surface comprising a neat aray of spines, as shown below, which are typically 5 to 10mm long:

Found under coniferous trees, and most commonly pines (Scots Pine in Scotland, of course!), these fleshy fungi are reportedly edible when young, but the taste is rather bitter and they are prone to maggot infestation; so, rather like Dryad's Saddle, Beefsteak Fungus and many other visually attractive large woodland fungi, they are probably best enjoyed in situ rather than being seen as a source of food.

Much more likely finds in the southern part of Britain are Hydnum repandum and Hydnum fufescens, two hedgehog fungi that are fairly common if not widespread as well as very good to eat. Within a forthcoming book about fungi, due to be launched in 2010, there is a chapter on our favourite wild mushroom recipes; one of the recipes is for 'Hedgehogs on Toast'... delicious! More on that subject in the New Year...

Mushroom of the Month - September 2009

Find one in perfect condition on a lovely sunny day and surely there's no bracket fungus to match Inonotus dryadeus for sheer beauty. The honey-like droplets that emerge like teardrops from the surface glisten like amber.


Oak trees are its main host, and if you see one of these large bracket fungi on a tree just take a walk around the bole; chances are there are several others, invariably very near to the ground. Athough also commonly referred to as the oak bracket fungus, Inonotus dryadeus also occurs sometimes on beech, birch and alder trees.

Up to 40cm across and typically 10 to 15 cm thick, these orange-brown brackets become irregularly shaped as the fruitbody matures. Occasionally they occur in tiers of three or more brackets, and as the infection increases, fruitbodies can occur on roots some distance away from the trunk of the tree. Trees can live for many years with this parasitic fungus attacking them, but ultimately the disease is often fatal. In the meantime, however, they are such an amazing sight, and definitely our favourite bracket species. More details on www.first-nature.com/fungi of course...

Mushroom of the Month - August 2009

What a brilliant start to the summer. No... we haven't emigrated; we are still suffering the worst of British weather. We say this merely as a reference to the emergence of fungi and not a comment on the almost incessant rain and wind that have ruined so many holidays already... unless of course you are a fungus fanatic.

Fanatical we certainly are, at least when it comes to searching out the very best edible mushrooms, and August has started with some wonderful finds. We have seen quite few field mushrooms and plenty of wood mushrooms (Agaricus campestris and Agaricus arvensis), but we rarely bother to collect when the subject of this posting is available... Summer Chanterelles! This year they are appearing in West Wales in probably ten times the usual quantity; the weather must suit them (meaning perhaps that the mycelium is in danger of drowning and is doing all that it can to secure a future for the species: producing spore-distributing fruitbodies).

Here is an example of the quality of summer chanterelles that we have found in the first few days of August:

In five minutes we gathered a kilo or so. Sue makes the most wonderful chanterelle sauces to go with pork chops, and she has lots of other recipes for these most superb mushrooms. Some of these will apear in Pat's new book on fungi, due out next spring. More details in due course...

Happy hunting!

Mushroom of the Month - July 2009

Summer is here, and with it comes the finest of all edible boletes. Cep, porcini, penny bun and many other common names have been given to Boletus edulis; in the USA it is known as the king bolete; in Sweden is is called Karljohan svamp after the Swedish King Charles IV.

Edulis means edible, of course - a very confusing term since most boletes are edible and many taste nice (but be aware that several others do taste rather bitter) and very few are toxic. Avoid any red-pored boletes, as some of them are reportedly quite seriously poisonous; and the pink-pored Tylopilus felleus, commonly called the bitter bolete, will spoil a meal if accidentally gathered along with ceps.

Where can you find a good supply of ceps? Currently dried ceps cost around £200 per kg, and that alone suggests they are not easy to gather in quantity. We find ours in conifer forests and sometimes under laneside beech trees, as these are mycorrhizal fungi that are always associated with trees but not tied rigidly to just one type of tree. Forest edges and clearings are good places to try, as also are the banks of woodland drainage ditches.

Ceps can grow to 30 cm in diameter, but by then they are usually maggotty and well past the edible stage. Small, firm caps and stems are the best for eating. They can be dried - we slice ours before drying them - and stored in jars for use throughout the winter months when fresh edible wild fungi are not readily available.

Ceps are our favourite edible mushrooms. Unfortunately (so far at least) their mycorrhizal nature has thwarted attempts to cultivate them in commercial quantities, and so the estimated 20,000 to 100,000 tonnes of ceps eaten each year across the world are all gathered from the wild.

Mushroom of the Month - June 2009

Wildflowers are at their very best, and the fairies are busy making bonnets from bluebells, harebells and a host of other bell-like flowers. But this must be very tiring work, and at the end of the day the fairies need somewhere to sit down and relax. Dryad's saddle fungi may be a bit on the big side for the average fairy's backside - some of these attractive bracket fungi are more than 50 cm across - but sited conveniently, often quite high up on the trunks of trees, they must provide wonderful vantage points from which a tired dryad can survey the surroundings.

Polyporus squamosus is commonly referred to as Dryad's Saddle. (A dryad is a mythical wood nymph.) This attractive polypore grows in overlapping clusters and tiers on broad-leaved trees. The fruit bodies appear in summer and autumn. Sycamore, willow, poplar and walnut trees are all commonly attacked by this impressively large and attractive fungus, and I have even found it growing on ash trees.

Insects quickly devour these large brackets, and in warm weather they can decay from full splendour to almost nothing in just a few days. The outer edges of young caps are edible and tender, but mature caps have tough flesh - especially near to the stipe.

Individual caps grow to between 10 and 60 cm in diameter and are 5 to 50 mm thick. Often in tiers, the caps are attached to the host tree by a very short lateral (occasionally eccentric but not quite lateral) stipe that darkens towards the base. Beneath the yellow to tan upper surface, the cap flesh is white and tough, and irregularly oval tubes 5 to 10 mm deep terminate in angular pores that are white at first but turn cream as the fruiting body matures. The tubes run decurrently on to the short stem. The spore print is white.

The first dryad's saddles appeared very early this year. I saw one at the end of March and several more in May, but June is the month when they really make their presence known. Although parasitic of trees they are relatively weak parasites, and so trees often survive for many years while bearing these attractive summer brackets.

Mushroom of the Month - May 2009

It's still spring, and fungi are supposed to be few and far between... but of course if you know where to look there are plenty about. The wood rotters start work early, and already plenty of sulphur polypores and dryad's saddle fungi are fruiting on damaged or diseased tree trunks. One of the most spectacular of all the bracket fungi is the maze-gill fungus, Daedalea quercina.

Labyrinthine, gill-like pores give this bracket fungus its generic scientific name. In Greek mythology, Daedalus constructed a labyrinth at Knossos for King Minos of Crete, and in that labyrinth lived the Minotaur - half-man, half-bull. That may be just a load of bull, of course, but even so this amazing perennial fungus realy does have remarkably maze-like elongated pores.

Oak stumps and large fallen branches are the staple diet of the maze-gill fungus, although you may occasionally find it tucking in to a dead sweet chestnut tree. Don't even think of biting it back: this tough polypore is a poor cullinary substitute for old boots.

Lenzites betulina is similar in appearance, with thinner cream 'gills'; it occurs mainly on birch trees. We haven't seen an of these in recent years... have you?