This visit to Bracken Hall Green and Shipley Glen was different to my usual trips in that I didn’t take my long lens or general lens with me. I only carried my macro lens with ring flash clipped to the front of it. This meant that my back didn’t not ache quite as much as usual.
I was looking for Fungi, and I found a few varieties. I have done my best to identify them. Some, like the Russula, need much closer investigation to give a proper ID, whereas others just need someone that knows what they are looking at. So many of them could be this, or could be that, that need someone that took the time to smell them, or taste them, no thanks, touch them, slimy? sticky? firm? spongy? break them, brittle? stretchy?, identify the tree that they were on or near ( I used to think I was OK with Silver Birch but apparently there are varieties)
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Bracken Hall Green Fungi
These are the ones I spotted on Bracken Hall Green, on the level area. They were all in the grass, i.e. not attached to a tree, but some were more in the leaf litter areas under some of the Oak trees that are growing on the green.
I don’t know if it was because they were protected from footfall or if they preferred the shelter but a few were in the narrow spaces between the large rocks or pressed right up against the rocks. Some of them looked as though they were being squeezed up out of the ground by the weight of the rocks.
There were several red Fly Agaric, Amanita muscaria, with some of them in the narrow, tall, spaces between the larger rocks away from the edge of the Glen. I found more further down in Shipley Glen, see the header image and later. There were also some orange Fly Agaric, also Amanita muscaria. I might do some more reading to find out why Amanita muscaria can have different colours when so many others that come in different colours also have different names.
Scattered around, in the grass and under the trees, were quite a few Brown Roll-rim, Paxillus involutus, which are apparently quite poisonous.
The largest fruiting body I found was a Bolete of some kind. The £1 coin on top of it gives an idea of its size. It was quite heavy and a bit like a soggy sponge with the pores on the underside squishing into a brown mush.
The cutest though, if a mushroom can be cute, was a little Bolete of the Leccinum genus. I would need to examine it closer to narrow it down any more. The fact that most of the nearby trees are Oak could help, so possibly Leccinum aurantiacum. It was about 2 cm diameter, squeezing out from under one of the big rocks.
Shipley Glen Fungi
After entering the trees of Shipley Glen I soon came across more Fly Agaric. Not one of them had a little door showing that it was occupied, but one did look as though it might be under construction – a doorway could be see, though it would probably need a couple of steps leading up to it. There was a rock on the path next to the Fly Agaric and I wondered if someone had put the rock there as a marker. Quite a bit of the Bracken was bent away from the mushrooms so I was not the only one that had been looking at them.
The three mushrooms next to the Fly Agaric were another Bolete, but with a very different appearance to the little one mentioned above. These were of the genus Suillus. Again a closer look would be needed to pin point which Species.
The next two mushrooms (3 photos) are also Boletes. The first two photos are of a variety of Leccinum. You can see that we are back with pores instead of gills. It is possibly a Birch Bolete, Leccinum scabrum. The third photo is a nice example of a Penny Bun, Boletus edulis. Though Penny Buns are prized edible mushrooms, resembling a bread roll, known for its nutty, earthy flavor I am not confident enough in the ID to take some home to eat.
The purple/pink topped mushroom with the very pale gills and stem is of the Russula genus and for further ID it needs careful study. One of the photos I have, that I have not posted, shows what could be white spores on the top of one mushroom that have fallen from the one just above it. That could help with ID, but other things need looking at too.
Could the next one with the light brown or yellow top and close decurrent gills also be of the Brittlegills (Russula) genus? Or could be of the related genus of Milkcaps (Lactarius). Though if I remember correctly it did not ooze latex from the gills. So I think it is more likely to be something like a Funnel Cap.
We then have a couple of photos of Common Bonnet Mycena Galericulates on a fallen tree. Followed by:-
- Birch Polypore, Fomitopsis betulina
- Turkey tail, Trametes Versicolor
- Shield lichen, Parmelia sulcata
- Chicken of the Woods, Laetiporus
The Chicken of the Woods is another prized edible fungus but is a genus not a specific species and the appearance of them can be very different so, again, I am not cutting some off to take home for my breakfast.
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The images are published under the Creative Commons, BY-NC-SA license. Feel free to share them, edit them, but please keep my name in the credits. And if I have got the ID of anything wrong please let me know, I don’t consider myself an expert but I have write something. It is often a best guess and it would take up too much room to say It could be this, or it could be… or perhaps.
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