Exciting finds!

We are a sharp eyed lot!

We are ending the season with some very interesting and exciting finds:-

An unassuming large, brownish/white mushroom at St Catherine’s Hill (Christchurch) has turned out to be a rare specimen (not our first from this location). It has been confirmed as Tricholoma focale , as described here:

http://www.first-nature.com/fungi/tricholoma-focale.php

And we were doubly lucky at our oldest haunt, a muddy Wareham Forest, a “weird curly brown thingy on a dead birch branch”:-

turned out to be Macrothphula fistulosa var. contorta just like this one:-

http://www.leifgoodwin.co.uk/Fungi/Macrotyphula%20fistulosa%20var.%20contorta.html

and, what at first glance seemed to be a Death Cap was really the unusual  Amanita gemmata (aka “Jewelled Amanita”) – still very dangerous though!:-

Oh, and we did find a few winter chanterelles which we could eat!

(Photos by MV Pike – click on small images for a larger picture).