Nature diary, Monday 5th October 1998, Wilderness plantation, Bretton, West Yorkshire
We've had a lot of rain in the last week so I was hoping for abundant fungi on our visit to this pine, larch, oak, beech plantation near Wakefield. Perhaps the coolness has held back the growth
The delicate parasol is Yellow cow-pat toadstool Bolbitius vitellinus. It was growing on the grassy verge of the woodland ride.
The nibbled deep crimson fungus is a kind of Russula.
The bracket fungi included; Birch Polypore, Piptoporus betulinus, and Many-zoned Polypore, Coriolus versicolor, on old logs and stumps. The brownish mushrooms will be going to a local expert for identification. The tiny club-shaped fungi on an old stump are probably Dead Man's Fingers Xylaria polymorpha.
On entering the plantation the first fungus we encountered was the once-smelt-never-forgotten Stinkhorn, Phallus impudicus.
Here is the list of species confirmed by our local expert; Lycoperdon pyriforme, The Deceiver Laccaria laccata,Penny Top Collybia dryophila, Witch's Egg (the golf ball sized object above, filled with slimy jelly, which grows into the Stinkhorn)Phallus impudicus, Purple-blackening Russula Russula atropurpurea, Hairy Stereum Stereum hirsutum, Schizopora paradoxa, Russula pallidus, Sulphur Tuft Hypholoma farcicularis, Tough Shank Collybia butyracea, Honey Fungus, Armillaria mellea.
