The Shroom Room

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 y...

We've been having beautiful weather here in Cardiff, and whilst it's been lovely to sit and eat lunch in the garden, it hasn't been the best conditions for mushrooms. So, when it rained for an entire day yesterday, I was excited at the prospect of finding more fungi. And as I ventured out with a friend today, fungi were exactly what I found. Dotted around on dead wood were lots of Common Jellyspot , or Dacrymyces stillatus. Yellow or orange in colour and shaped like round blobs, Common Jellyspot grows on dead wood throughout the year. As the name suggests, if you touch it, it has a jelly-like consistency. It is quite common for multiple blobs to fuse together to form bigger, more abstract shapes. Characteristics Habitat:  On dead wood, including fences Fruit body:  2-5mm across, yellow to orange in colour, in small blobs which often merge. Gelatinous to touch but harder when dry. Spore print:  White Season:  All year Edibility: Inedible Now ...