Their flowers all faded
Their berries, sweet, eaten
Yet out in the countryside
If you’re sharp-eyed
You might meet them and greet them:
The Fairies.
A typical trail of fairy-fungi. Follow these, you’ll certainly find yourself lost
When I was taking these photos my intention was to come home, delve into my Fungi Field Guide (not taken out with me, of course) and thus be able to label the specimens authoritatively. I then discovered this wasn’t so easy. What, I’d not taken spore-prints? Had I not cut the flesh? Checked to see whether the gills affix to the stem? Sniffed to discern how it smelled? No, none of these things. And so, rather than a mis-identification I merely present them—much as I saw them. Without labels!
These so remind me of pancakes. But who was the chef? And why serve them out here?
Ah, the gills! Or is it fairy-fancywork upon some golden chalice?
These might look the same as those ‘pancakes’ above but they’re not. See their shaggy rims? Like the fairies have sewn a fringe around them.
How many fairies might dance upon this? The hand shows its size.
But not all fungi are as easily spotted as these cakes and crepes.
The next section include several easily missed and, oops-a-daisy, stood upon.
Pale pink bonnets for the fairies’ bonny babies?
Pink bonnets for girls, blue caps for boys. Seems the fairies are behind the times! BTW, I think this may be a Pleated Inkcap
These are distinctive enough for me to hazard a name: they’re probably the Petticoat Fungus, members of the inkcap family, poisonous (and also hallucinogenic) Hmm, and now we see fairies!
In a recently cleared break, more thimble-caps. Note the red stems. Surely a clue to their identification
That one clearing was richly decked with a multitude of small caps. But are they all the same species, merely exhibiting different stages of growth and decay? But I can pick out at least four potentially different species
Two birds with one shot . . . I particularly liked those dark chocolate ones in the foreground. Could they be a mature form of the paler chappies?
Decidedly a different type of fungus here, not just a matter of size. And in the foreground an easily-missed blacked specimen, possibly yet another inkcap
Amongst the autumnal leaves this solitary cap is easily missed. Those fairies, always hiding them!
Back to those pancakes. Though these more resemble what I know as ‘Scotch Pancakes’. As to that coral-pink splodge, I think that’s the old form. Though it could be something entirely different.
And something ‘lighter’ to end on, to help clear the fairy dust from our eyes. These might be coloured kinda mushroomy-colour but I wouldn’t trust them any place near my gullet, not without first a look at their gills, a cut into their flesh, and not without a spore-print. Scalpel, paper, rubber gloves . . . anyone?
And which ones did you say you were eating? 🙂
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No, no, no, no, I said I wouldn’t eat them, not being certain of the identification. But there are more to come, next weekend. And amongst them at least one I can definitely name. But I wouldn’t ingest that one either despite what they say of old hippies (they never die, they just take drugs and fly away) 🙂
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Indeed, I was sorely disappointed when a mushroom guide pointed out that almost every edible species here in the U.S. has a poisonous near-lookalike, and that one should consult an expert first.
As it turns out, there is one exception, and it was actually growing down the street where I grew up. But I could never identify it until it had progressed to an inedible stage. 😦
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If you’ve read the blurb along with the photos you’ll know I did try to identify my ‘specimens’. But I gave up after 24 hours: the time it took for me to accept I just hadn’t gathered enough information. Hells, I am not taking scalpels and paper and notebooks with me just to take some photos. It would be a different matter if I intended to collect and to eat.
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