The most beautiful bouquet of Killerton Waxcaps

Killerton is one of my favourite National Trust places in Devon. It’s one of the ones which was sold to the National Trust, rather than partially given as a tax avoidance measure with the family lingering on like ghosts still using the property. Sir Richard Thomas Dyke Acland, 15th Baronet sold it, despite the reservations of his family, as he believed in public ownership of land, was a Labour MP and one of the founders of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament. It’s replete with fungi in season. I’ve had some lovely finds there, although why I was lying on the ground taking photographs of phallic shapes in the bushes took a bit of explaining:

The meadows are untreated which has allowed fungi to flourish unseen, creeping their slow way through the natural nutrients in the soil. Killerton has been particularly good for Waxcaps in the past:

Today is a new species for me:

Hygrocybe intermedia - The Hall of Einar - photograph (c) David Bailey (not the)

It’s Hygrocybe intermedia, the Fibrous Waxcap. It’s classed as “uncommon to occasional”.

Hygrocybe intermedia - The Hall of Einar - photograph (c) David Bailey (not the)

I pick just one and take it to our group members, the Devon Fungus Group, which appears to be fruiting nicely, having multiplied unseen during lockdown. I’ve never seen as many members.

Hygrocybe intermedia - The Hall of Einar - photograph (c) David Bailey (not the)

It really is the most beautiful bouquet.

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