Thursday, November 17, 2016

More fine fungi


This continues to be an outstanding autumn for toadstools in west Durham.

















I'm pretty sure this beauty is the trooping funnel Clitocybe geotropa. Those gills remind me of cathedral roof vaulting.













There were about a dozen arrayed in a semi-circle around the roots of a hazel, on the riverbank downstream of Wolsingham in Weardale.




































The largest specimen had a cap diameter of about 20cm.




































A little further down the riverbank and this is alder bracket Inonotus radiatus, growing on a dying alder. 



Monday, November 14, 2016

Black bulgar fungus, a licorice lookalike





I found these fine specimens of black bulgar fungus Bulgaria inquinans growing on a fallen branch of oak in Backstone bank wood near Wolsingham in Weardale.

















It's a strange fungus, looking like flattened lumps of licorice, up to five centimetres in diameter, with a rubbery texture