The Shroom Room

As the sun has been shining a lot recently, I've been making an effort to enjoy it. After a busy week, I chose today to do some more exploring around our new neighbourhood. There's a nature trail nearby, so I had a walk through there, keeping my eye out for mushrooms as always. I wasn't expecting much, as it's been really dry recently. The Turf Mottlegills which I found last week had already disappeared. But when I walked off the main path into a more wooded area, I caught sight of a cluster of Fairy Inkcaps , or Coprinellus disseminatus. While most Inkcaps  auto-digest into a black liquid, Fairy Inkcaps don't do this. They do, however, darken with age, and their caps expand outwards as they mature. For this reason, two Fairy Inkcaps growing next to each other could look completely different! They tend to grow in clusters, sometimes hundreds in numbers, on or beside dead wood. The cluster I found today were on the bottom of an upturned tree. It...

First of all, apologies for the lack of posts these past couple of months. Things have been quite hectic, and I've been really busy. In the last two months, I've handed in my dissertation, completed two exams, moved house and started an internship. Needless to say, there's hasn't been much time for mushroom hunting, not that there were many about in April and May anyway. Regardless, I have finally got a few days to relax, so I thought I'd go for a wander around my new neighbourhood this morning. What I discovered were loads of mushrooms scattered in the grass around me. Excited, I picked one and took it home to make a spore print. It's likely that they sprung up due to the huge amounts of rain we've been having here in Wales. They were wet, so their caps looked shiny. Unfortunately, I have managed to misplace my mushroom identification books during the move, so had to use the internet to try and discover what these little brown mushrooms were. Luckil...

Spring is finally upon us, and whilst greenery is emerging and bright flowers are peeping through the cracks that winter has left, things are still somewhat quiet in the fungal world. With the main mushroom season being late summer and autumn, there is a way to go before we can see mushrooms at every corner. However, as the weather is beginning to warm, there are a few species that are starting to emerge. One such mushroom is the  Common Inkcap , or  Coprinopsis atramentaria . Common Inkcaps have a long season, beginning to appear in spring and continuing to fruit until the end of autumn. Like the majority of their Inkcap cousins , their caps expand outwards, eventually becoming an inky liquid.         They tend to form in groups and grow on buried wood. Most of the ones I've found have been under trees in grassy areas, such as parks or fields. I like to think their caps look like arrows pointing out of the soil.        ...

Fungi are such a diverse group of organisms that often it's difficult to believe what you're looking at is related to the mushrooms we use in the kitchen. I have stumbled across many a fungus that sparks this kind of reaction in me, one of which is King Alfred's Cakes , or Daldinia concentrica. They are extremely bizarre-looking, forming large black lumps on dead wood. Where there's one, there tends to be multiple. Their name is derived from the story of King Alfred, who allegedly hid in the house of a peasant woman whilst the Vikings were wreaking havoc. The woman asked Alfred to watch her cakes in the oven; however he was so distracted by his problems that he let them burn. And I suppose these fungi are what the cakes looked like in the end. Rather fitting, too, as they feel smooth, hard, and if you tap on them, they sound hollow inside. In fact, if you were to cut open one of these 'cakes', what you'd find inside is zones of shiny circles. Alth...

Glistening inkcaps are my favourite winter mushrooms. When it seems cold, dark and wet every day, a glistening inkcap poking out of a log is sure to cheer you up. They are light and shimmery, like something magical. Even though I have so many pictures of them, I always stop to take more whenever I see them, because they truly brighten my day. A cluster on a log Members of the Coprinus family - also known as Inkcaps - are quite different from other species, because most of them "auto-digest". This means that towards the end of their life, their caps roll upwards, turning into an inky-black liquid, hence the name.  Inkcaps were the first family I was able to identify quickly, as they are rather unique and therefore difficult to confuse with other genera. It is possible, however, to confuse mushrooms within the genus, so as always it's best to go about identifying with an open mind and above all, caution. The gills are turning black, indicating the auto-...