False Death Caps and Ugly Milkcaps
There are many False Death Caps, Amanita citrinum, in the woods at the moment. Their strange white bodies litter the ground, eerie …
Brown Birch Boletes on Yarner Heath
While I’m searching for Parasitic Boletes I stumble across a Brown Birch Bolete. They’re lovely mushrooms. They have scaly stalks, small tubes …
The Deceiver
The Deceiver. It’s such a great name for a mushroom. It’s has depth, a backstory and a certain presence. I love it. …
Egghead Mottlegills at Hound Tor
A trip to Hound Tor on Dartmoor reveals a special fruiting sensation of Egghead Mottlegills, Panaeolus semiovatus, or at least that’s what I think they are. I’d probably need to destroy …
A fungus, the Ice Man and rotten wood that smells of green apples
There’s a common fungus growing on a birch tree in the woods. It’s called the Birch Bracket fungus. My friend Joe drinks …
Lordly Tree
There’s a particularly impressive oak tree in Abbotskerswell in South Devon. As the old joke says, it’s out standing in its field. …
Purple mushrooms on Dartmoor
I’m on an organised fungus foray on Dartmoor with the Devon Fungus Group and, yes, we are all exactly like you would …
Lumpy Brackets and boring beetles
There’s a Lumpy Bracket fungus in the woods at Fingle Bridge on Dartmoor. That’s its name; the Lumpy Bracket fungus. It has …
Yellowleg Bonnet
We’re having a field day. Or rather, I should say we’re having a woods day. We’re out having fun looking for as …
The difference between tasty soup and death
There’s a fungus growing on this rotten log in Yarner Wood on Dartmoor. It’s the Sheathed Woodtuft, Kuehneromyces mutabilis. It has wonderful circles …
A tight bundle
There’s a tight bundle of curiously coloured mushrooms on this dead wood. It’s Sulphur Tuft. That’s such a perfect name. Their yellow …
The Elfin Saddle
We’ve taken a trip to Alviano to see the birds in the forest and on the lake. We had a fabulous time …
Beautiful Brittlegills
There are many brightly coloured species of fungi in Yarner Woods. These are all Russulas, to use their scientific name, or Brittlegills …
A Bounty of Bay Boletes
The ground on Trendlebere Down is full of surprises at this time of year. In amongst the understory of bracken and bilberries …
Dead Man’s Fingers
I joined my local Natural History Society when I was 11 or 12 years old. It was full of retired men who …
Oakbug Milkcaps
Oak trees are our most common native tree. They host hundreds of species of insects because they’ve had the time to develop …
I highly recommend stroking a wild mushroom
I’m looking for a fungus. It’s not just any fungus, it’s a parasitic fungus which grows on another fungus. I’ve seen it …
The Cornish Pasty fungus
The Birch Polypore. Razor Strop Fungus. Birch Bracket. Like many fungi, this one has a range of strange and exotic folk names …
Westray Coast 50 – Day One
My adventures on the first of five days walking the entire coast of Westray.
One minute it’s there…
There’s a fungus at the bottom of the garden: I’d love to identify it but it’s all on its own and I …
Indian Pipe
I’m walking through a forest in Virginia. The trees here are magnificent. They are so much taller than I’m used to. In …
Cobalt Crust in Primley Park
Primley Park in South Devon is a large area, but it is just a part of what were the private gardens of …
The Tail of the Turkey
Turkey Tail fungus, Trametes versicolor, is everywhere: Here it is in Fungorum qui in Bavaria et Palatinatu circa Ratisbonam nascuntur icones, nativis …
What a difference a lens makes
Forty years ago I kept detailed nature notebooks. I wrote down everything I saw and identified with enthusiasm, including the smallest of …
Finding the Fluted Bird’s Nest fungus
There’s a fungus I’ve never see before at my feet in the woods of Orley Common in South Devon. It’s tiny, almost …
Dry rot’s wild cousin
I’ve owned a house which had dry rot. It’s not something I’d wish on anyone. Having the fungus, Serpula lacrymans, creeping through …
King Alfred’s burnt his cakes
There’s a seriously weird fungus growing on this fallen tree trunk. It looks the shape of bubbles, as if it’s been forced …
Searching for an unusual Easter egg
Easter Sunday was spent with my Hungarian friends going on a fungus hunt. As you do. Or should that be, as I …
Scarlet Elf Cups in Holden Clough
A large part of my childhood was spent walking many miles to a small steeply wooded valley, known in the north as …
2017 highlights of a wilder Devon life
2017 was when I embarked upon my quest with gusto. Which quest? To find all the animals, plants and fungi I wrote …