MY MUSHROOM YEAR 2023-24

 Commonly referred to as Plums and Custard or occasionally as the Strawberry Mushroom, Tricholomopsis rutilans is, nevertheless, a very bitter and inedible fungus. It is always a joy to come across these stately mushrooms, not least because of their habit of colonising buried decaying conifer roots and forming wonderfully photogenic groups. The bright yellow gills of this mushroom serve as a reminder that gill colour is not a good guide to spore colour; the spores of this species are white.(First Nature)

 In the generally difficult Cortinarius group of fungi Cortinarius flexipes is one of the few species that are reasonably easy to identify from macroscopic characters alone; however, you really must find several specimens at different stages in their development. Cap shape and colour are very variable features and they can change considerably as the fruitbody matures. What is particularly distinctive about this webcap is its odour: it smells like pelargoniums - those house plants that many people (wrongly) call geraniums.(First Nature)

The yellowfoot is a small mushroom, usually only a few inches tall. Its common names give away its key distinguishing feature: the stem (the mushroom’s “foot”) is bright yellow, its stem is hollow (like a tube), it’s funnel or trumpet-shaped, and it’s brightly colored (like a flame). Yellowfoot mushrooms only grow from the ground or on decomposing logs; they never grow up trees or on solid logs. They grow in dense or scattered groupings across the forest floor, especially boggy, wet areas filled with lots of moss. The yellowfoot chanterelle is mycorrhizal (forms relationships with specific trees), with two species preferring conifers and one growing in association with hardwoods. (Mushroom Appreciation)