Fungi

The start to the fungus season has been a good one. Many fungi are emerging in lots of locations.

Blusher (Amanita rubescens)

Colin Booker and I took a walk at Walton Colliery Country Park and started finding many fungi as soon as we set out. Amongst lots of earthballs beneath some birches, we found a number of blushers.

Russulas

There were also dozens of Russulas beneath trees. They are difficult to identify but I think the commonest, shown on the left of this image, was the grass-green Russula (R aeruginea). The yellow one was probably the ochre brittlegill (R ochroleuca). The red one defied my attempts to identify it.

Woolly Milkcap (Lactarius torminosus)

We located a single woolly milkcap and a couple of boletes.

Orange Birch Bolete (Leccinum versipelle)

This single orange birch bolete (Leccinum versipelles) was growing beneath silver birches, as would be expected.

Peppery Bolete (Chalciporus piperatus)

We also found this peppery bolete (Chalciporus piperatus), with it’s quite distinctive shiny cap. It gets its name because of its peppery taste. Having said this, never eat any fungus as a result of any identification that I make on this site, or any other!

Hypomyces chrysospermus

A day or two later, this evening, I was walking at Ackworth when I spotted a vivid yellow in the grass. I found that this was covering what looked like a dehydrated mushroom.

Hypomyces chrysospermus

Having seen a lot of boletes this week, it was interesting to find that the colour was caused by a fungus – Hypomyces chrysospermus – that specialises in feeding on boletes. First they turn white and then a bright yellow colour.