Staying local
In the first lockdown it was revealing just how much nature was all around me. I didn’t need to spend ages preparing or travelling because wonderful finds were on my doorstep, or in the park at the end of the road, or bursting out of the local industrial estate. One of my favourite spots is just outside my front door, where the remains of a churchyard show all the signs of having that rarest of rare habitats; unimproved grassland. It has been a pleasure to explore it and find beautiful fungi there:
Having said that, my neighbours must thing I’ve lost something, given I wander the churchyard looking intensely at the ground. They may think I’ve lost my mind but, by engaging with nature, I’ve actually found my mind. Today we went in search of a fungus which the Puffin Whisperer had spotted under the trees.
At first I thought it might be one of these beauties, a Pestle Puffball, which I found in the same churchyard a year ago:
But it isn’t. I suspect it’s a Scaly Earthball, Scleroderma verrucosum. It’s a very large and beautiful example. Here’s my phone photo:
Scleroderma means hard skin and verrucosum means warty (like verrucas). I find the name Scaly Earthball a little disappointing. I decide I’m going to call it the Baked Potato fungus until I find there’s a similar species called the Potato Earthball. Oh well. I’m told that to be sure of the species I need to test what colour it turns if I drop potassium hydroxide on it. How random is that?
I’m off to find out where I can get caustic potash and a pipette in a pandemic. See you tomorrow for another local adventure.
More Fungi
Ash downfall Here's a Cramp Ball. There are hundreds of them here. They love dead or dying Ash trees. I've been taking… read more
St George’s Mushrooms Last week I said we should be getting St George's Mushrooms soon. This week, they arrived. By the side of… read more
Dacrymyces deliquescens There's a tiny orange fungus on this wet rotting wood. I recognise it from my childhood. It can only be… read more
Velvet-stemmed Little Flame December is the best time to find Velvet Shank fungus, Flammulina velutipes. It's a species I found as a child:… read more
You can set your calendar by its appearance Hypholoma fasciculare is a great name for a fungus. read more
Hare’s Foot Inkcap There's a Hare's Foot Inkcap, Coprinopsis lagopus, in our dog-walking field in Somerset. I only have my phone with me,… read more
Petticoat Mottlegill There's a Petticoat Mottlegill, Panaeolus papilionaceus, in this Somerset field. Isn't its petticoat frill fabulous? It's a common fungus of… read more
Multiple organ failure on a stick It's the season of multiple organ failure on a stick, otherwise known as the Death Cap, Amanita phalloides. Death Caps… read more
A date with Waxcaps A trip to Somerset to see my friend Martin had the unintended bonus of a walk and a crop of… read more