Mushroom of the Month - January 2010

Winter is not the best time for cap-and-stem fungi, but if we get a mild spell there is a group of fungi ready to spring forth in woodland - the Cortinarius mushrooms. I am using the term 'mushrooms' in the broadest sense rather than in its narrow 'edible-fungi' interpretation, because many Cortinarius species are known to be poisonous - some of them deadly - and nearly all others are of dubious or unknown edibility. For that reason the total number of Cortinarius species that I can recommend for eating is... zero. These are look-at-me mushrooms, and not feast-on-me fungi.

Cortinarius cinnamomeus is a wonderful winter woodland species, as it generally appears quite late in the autumn and often fruits through the New Year and occasionally into February. It's also a very distinctive mushroom, unlike most species in this difficult group.

In the UK I find this gregarious mushroom most often in coniferous woodland, but it is also found under birches in dry heaths. All Cortinarius fungi are mycorrhizal (they form symbiotic associations with the roots of trees), so they do not occur in grassland (at least not significantly beyond the point where tree roots extend into the fields).

For identification details see the fungi section of http://www.first-nature.com/ where this and several related species are pictured and described.

Here's another picture of Cortinarius cinnamomeus:

One final point about winter mushrooms... after heavy frost it's generally a week or ten days before any new fruitbodies emerge from the forest floor, but some of the wood rotters and parasites that grow on trunks and branches cope much better with the cold.

Happy New Year, and happy fungi hunting!

Mushroom of the Month - December 2009

This month's mushroom is an alien. Clathrus ruber looks alien and it doesn't really belong here, having arrived fairly recently, so experts believe. But here it is and it seems determined to stay; and, with the climate becoming ever more favourable to it, this mainly Mediterranean species is likely to be seen ever more frequently in the British Isles. Already it is fairly common in some southern parts of England (most particularly in the Westcountry and on the Isle of Wight) but also in southern Ireland too. In the Channel Islands these striking fungi are now very often a decorative feature of compost heaps and grassy orchards. That said, you can count yourself lucky if you do come across this remarkable relative of the stinkhorns... unless you happen to sit on one accidentally. If you think the common stinkhorn (Phallus impudicus) is smelly, save the superlatives for this rotter! For close-up photography a scuba outfit would be a good investment.

In much the same way that setting out to find giant puffballs is pretty much a futile quest (unless you already know a site where they occur), so seeking the cage fungus is also something best suited to masochists; these are fungi you just come across once in a (very long) while. The one pictured below was spotted in a shallow, leaf-litter filled ditch in the Serra around Monchique, in southern Portugal. They are not common there, but we did manage to find three in one day.

The half-buried 'eggs' from which the cage fungi emerge look very much like those of the common stinkhorn, but as the time nears for an almost explosive emergence the outer skin ruptures and the embryonic cage is clearly visible - see below.

The eggs are typically 3cm in diameter, but when fully expanded the cage is three times that size, with dark olive-green gleba coating the inner surface. Flies love them, of course, attracted to their stench of rotting meat, and the short-lived fruitbodies last just one or two days before collapsing and turning to mush.

Also known as the latticework fungus, Clathrus ruber occurs in summer and autumn, but with the heat emitted by rotting compost or wood chippings they can even be found in November unless the weather turns icy cold. Like us, they are not at all keen on frost.

If you know someone whose garden is infested with these amazing fungi, that's the place to go to see them... But take a clothes peg for your nose, and just be glad that it's not your garden!

There are more pictures and information about this mushroom (and its darker red relative Clathrus archeri) on www.first-nature.com/fungi - and we wish you much happy fungi foraying throughout the forthcoming festive season.

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?

Mushroom of the Month - April 2009

Calocybe gambosa is a chunky white mushroom that usually appears towards the end of April - hence its common name St George's Mushroom. You can find them in May and often through to late June, too. 23rd April is St George's Day - but you knew that, of course... er, well, if you are English perhaps you might be blushing now, because everyone in Ireland can tell you that St Patrick's Day is on 17th March, and in Wales it's impossible for St David's Day pass you by unnoticed unless you are comatose... but as far as I can tell neither the Welsh nor Irish Patron Saints has a mushroom named in his honour.

Harvested commercially in Romania and some other European mainland countries, this good edible species is best picked young because older specimens often are maggot infested. It has a mealy smell that puts some people off, but others find it excellent - it must be well cooked, by the way.

The really good news is that these spring mushrooms often appear in groups and even in large fairy rings. Up to 15 cm across, the caps have a smooth texture and are domed when young, flattening when fully expanded. Be sure that you do not confuse this edible species with the relatively uncommon but deadly poisonous Inocybe patouilardii, a bell-shaped mushroom with a fruity smell that appears in similar grassy and woodland-edge habitats.

For more pictures and details of St George's Mushroom see:

www.first-nature.com/fungi/id_guide/tricholomataceae/calocybe_gambosa.htm

Happy hunting!

Mushroom of the Month - March 2009

March is when the first morels usually appear, although after such a tough winter I wonder whether they will be rather later than usual this spring. Anyway, because they are one of the very best edible fungi it's surely quite appropriate to select them as mushroom of the month.

Although the common morel is Morchella esculenta, it is only 'common' by name: far more plentiful nowadays are the black morels, Morchella elata, shown above. How so? It's all to do with the fashion for mulching flower beds in gardens and parks using woodchip: black morels often erupt in vast numbers among bark and wood chippings put down the previous year.

Notice how the pits on the cap are in neat vertical lines - a distinguishing feature of this much-sought-after edible mushroom. The only nasty that you could possibly mistake for a morel is Gyromitra esculenta. That specific name 'esculenta' suggests an edible species, but in this case it's definitely not - or at least several people have suffered serious poisoning after eating it (even though some people report no problems after eating Gyromita esculenta, the false morel (also called the 'turban fungus'. So here is the enemy, G esculenta:

There are no pits on the cap of this poisonous species, so armed with this information I hope you will feel confident enough to gather and enjoy a few morels this spring.

Mushroom of the Month - February 2009

Few of the Ascomycota produce large fruitbodies, but Xylaria polymorpha, commonly called Dead Man's Fingers, certainly does. Its morbid eruptions appear throughout the year at the base of beech and ash stumps (and occasionally on other buried hardwoods). Few fungi have more appropriate common names: imagine the shock of walking through a tree-lined churchyard at dusk and seeing a set of blackened fingers apparently clawing their way out of the ground!

Slice through one of the fingers and you find that, surprisingly, the material inside is white with little black flasks just beneath the surface layer. This is where the spores develop inside what are termed ascii, and when ripe the spores are released to drift on the breeze. (It takes very little breeze to carry the minute spores quite a long way.)

Xylaria belong to a group of burnt-looking fungi knows as the Pyromycetes (the name itself being a reference to fire). There are many other Xylaria, including the very common candle-snuff fungus Xylaria hypoxylon - yet another of the woodland fungi that you can see in the winter months.

Many of the Pyromycetes produce very small fruitbodies that almost invariably go unnoticed, but another year-round species, Daldinia concentrica, is very conspicuous; its most commonly used common name in the UK is King Alfred's cakes, but you may find people referring to 'cramp balls' - the connotation being that if you carry these hard black hemispherical fungi in your pocket you will not suffer from cramp. These 'tough cookies' grow mainly on the dead trunks and large branches of ash trees, whether standing or fallen.

All I can say is that I do not kepp my pockets filled with these fungi, and I do (albeit very occasionally) get attacks of cramp. So does that prove anything?

Mushroom of the Month - January

Sarcoscypha coccinea is January's fungal gem, although this is a mushrom that you will find right through to springtime. Commonly referred to as scarlet elf cup fungus, this Ascomycetes fungus appears throughout the winter on half-buried dead wood (usually hardwood such as hazel, willow and alder) in damp, shady places. Its bright red cup interiors stand out against the green moss that invariably covers the decaying fallen twigs from which the caps emerge. The irregularly shaped caps, which are edible when cooked, are usually 2 or 3 cm in diameter but can be as large as 5 cm and have a smooth, scarlet inner hymenal surface and a much paler felty outer surface. The edges of young cups are usually incurved. There is a very short stipe, often buried in leaf litter, and it is the same colour as the outer surface of the cup.

We find these lovely fungi, often in vast numbers, in shallow ditches beneath hedges, on fallen logs lying across well-shaded wooded streams, and in dark quarries - wherever hardwood twigs lie in damp, shady places and the moss that soon covers them does not dry out. Often it seems as though the cups are simply growing from soil, but they never are: if you dig down a couple of cm you will always find that their short pale stems are attached to rotten wood.

Despite the bright red colour of the fruitbodies, spores from the caps of this fungus are white.

The only common species likely to be confused with scarlet elf cup is Aleuria aurantia, the orange peel fungus, whose caps are usually rather larger and are orange rather than red. Orange peel fungus grows on soil rather than on wod and is appears in summer and autumn.

Lollipop Fungi

A Happy New Year to all our First Nature friends and, despite the economic gloom and the big freeze with which we start the year, may 2009 be a good one for you all. It has certainly started well for us in terms of enjoing wildlife and scenic beauty.

We visited the south of France to photograph fungi there, and we stayed on for Christmas and saw the New Year in. We also saw eagles, bearded vultures (at fairly close quarters up in the Pyrenees on the border between France and Spain; and down in the lowlands almost everywhere were those delightful birds, the lapwings. They are there in their thousands, and just as shy as our remaining few hundreds are here in our home country of Wales.

But the best sight, from a fungi enthusuast's point of view at any rate, was the vast array of sand-dune fungi on the edges of the pine forests near Bayonne. Tulostoma brumale, tiny puffballs on sticks, were everywhere... well, slight exaggeration perhaps, but they apear in their hundreds and of course in temperatures well above freezing (17 degrees on New Year's Eve) they are there right through to the end of winter.

Other fine fungi seen in the dunes included Amanita gemmata and Stropharia aurata, as well as earth tongues (Geoglossum species) and plenty of LBMs (little brown mushrooms way beyond our expertise).