Skip to main content

Fool's Conecap - Conocybe filaris

Winter is long. 
And although spring is beginning to shine through the cracks, it's not exactly the most abundant time of year for mushrooms. 

Over the last few months I have ventured into parks and woodland in search for signs of the few species that stick around for the colder weather, and though I have been pleasantly surprised on some occasions, it can feel disappointing to find so little after the autumn when mushrooms pop up everywhere you look.

Imagine my surprise then, when I found a small cluster in my own garden!


They were peeking out of a garden waste bag filled with soil, leaves and other debris. I was so excited about it that I actually did a little bit of a dance! I'd never seen this mushroom before, so I was anxious to get stuck into identifying what it was. I picked one out of the bag to take a closer look and make a spore print.


Characteristics

 Habitat: On soil and debris. Also found in grass.
Cap: 1.5cm across, orange, turning darker ochre towards the centre. Umbo (little bump) in the centre and faint yellow lines at the margin.
Stem: Pale cream at the top, darkening to a brown towards the base. Cap-coloured ring present.
Gills: Adnate (attached to the stem). Cream-coloured.
Spore print: Ochre
Season: Autumn (occasionally appearing in other seasons)
Edibility: Poisonous
Spore print

Armed with this new information, I set out to identify this vibrant little mushroom. I will admit, it was a lot harder than I imagined. The small book I usually use to identify mushrooms didn't seem to have anything close to resembling my orange friend, and using multiple websites gave me varying results. However, when I finally came to the conclusion that it must be the Fool's Conecap, I realised why it had been so difficult. It appears there are multiple Latin names for this mushroom! So I have settled on the one used in another book I own: Conocybe filaris.

I should also mention that whilst I was reading up about this Fool's Conecap, I discovered that it's extremely poisonous. If you were to eat it, it could kill you, even though it's so tiny. 

Additionally, it appears that this mushroom is actually an autumn mushroom (assuming I have identified it correctly, which of course isn't always the case). Given that it's February, this is somewhat of a surprising discovery, however it is not unheard of. I've read on various websites and in books, that some mushrooms can appear out of their season, and I suppose with climate change it's only going to become more common. 

Lucky for this mushroom, not so lucky for the Fool who eats it!

Disclaimer: I am not an expert. Never eat a mushroom you've found without confirmation that it is edible by an expert.

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Milky Conecap - Conocybe apala

Often, I will find a mushroom and never be able to work out what it is. I will spend days searching the internet and looking in books, but never able to solve the mystery. It can be really frustrating. This happened to me at the beginning of May, when I was walking home from an appointment and saw a white mushroom poking out of the grass nearby. It was the first time I'd seen a mushroom in over a month, so I was pretty excited about it. I did what I usually do: took pictures, examined it, made notes. Then I went home to do some research, and couldn't find anything. So I forgot about it. Yesterday, whilst I was doing research for another mushroom, I accidentally clicked on a wrong link and ended up on a page describing the Milky Conecap , or Conocybe apala.  I had an "aha!" moment, as I recognised instantly that it was the same mushroom I had spent so long trying to find a name for. Let me tell you, there's nothing more satisfying than putting the final pieces
1 comment
Read more

Dung Roundhead - Stropharia semiglobata

The start of mushroom season is finally upon us, and I couldn't be more excited. Although the bouts of rain weren't ideal for our wedding last week, they did mean lots of exciting finds during our honeymoon, walking through damp North Wales. I will no doubt make many posts about the intriguing finds we stumbled across during our time away, but I wanted to start at our first fungal encounter, the Dung Roundhead , or Stropharia semiglobata. Scattered across the huge pastures we were walking through were hundreds of them. And though the name suggests they grow exclusively on dung, the majority of them were in fact beside dung. The gills are adnate and ranged in colour depending on the age of the mushroom. Younger ones had a more purplish tinge to them, while the more mature species had black gills. The spore print is a dark purplish-brown colour. Characteristics Habitat:  On or beside dung, usually in pasture. Cap:  1-3cm across, hemispherical. Cream to ye
4 comments
Read more

Pale Brittlestem - Psathyrella candolleana

Going for a walk on a weekday is really rather peaceful, as everyone is at work. It can feel like you have a whole section of the world to yourself, like your own little secret. That's how I felt today walking down the Rhymney Trail . There were loads of birds and dragonflies about, but other than that, I was pretty much by myself. It wasn't until I was on my way back that I found any mushrooms. I came slightly off the path to look at a pile of fallen trees and, just as I was about to give up, I spotted a cluster of mushrooms, nearing the end of their life. It's been really dry the last couple of days, so it's likely they ran out of moisture. When I looked to the floor next to me, I saw some more poking out of the ground. They looked similar to a cluster I'd found in March, which I'd only recently identified. I went home to make a spore print and look at my old pictures, and concluded that these elderly fungi were Pale Brittlestems , or Psa
Post a Comment
Read more