I love autumn – it’s fungi time
I’m running a couple of fungi walks around the Botanic Garden for our first (and the world’s first!) Science, Nature and Comedy Festival on the weekend of 16/17 Sept 1-2pm. A great excuse to go out looking for new fruiting bodies.
Our new science student Louisa pointed out a beautiful plantpot dapperling Leucocoprinus birnbaumii in our Plas Pilipala butterfly house. New to me, supposedly common in greenhouses but not often formally recorded in the UK.
Our new horticultural apprentice Ben and student trainee James also spotted several beefsteak fungi Fistulina hepatica on the ancient tree trunk on our Cae Trawscoed hay meadow. We normally only get one fruit body; perhaps this is because one of our wildlife volunteers, Howard removed the smothering bramble a couple of weeks ago.
Over in Fairy Woods, the huge fairy ring of fleecy milkcap Lactarius vellereus is back again, while the spooky corals Caluvulina coralloides are reaching out from the leaf litter.
Another wildlife volunteer Pete alerted me to a new patch of the edible hedgehog fungus Hydnum rufescens. I wonder if this will still be fruiting when professional forager Richard Osmond joins me on the Science, Nature and Comedy Festival fungi walk . . .