Fungi Friday 🍄

New Forest National Park, Hampshire, August 2023

I was in the New Forest National Park camping for a couple of nights last week. The rainy July in southern England gave me great hope of finding some nice shrooms in what is one of England’s mushroom wonderlands.

It didn’t disappoint! I’ll post some more of my other finds in separate posts later this week.

I was so happy to find these boletes, one having already been uprooted. They were the perfect shape and just an absolute joy to see. I have been told these are ceps, but I’m not entirely sure if they’re not another species. I’m unclear on the variety among ceps, and if the colouring isn’t indicative of another species.

I did have a bit of fun with the perspective here…

These lovely yellow-pored boletes are in the genus Xerocomus.

About half a mile or less away we found this beauty sitting alone among the grass and leaf litter. It’s an orange bolete. It doesn’t appear to have a distinct association with one species of tree, but this area was common in oak and birch.

Much later that day, on the return stretch, we found this well-camouflaged group of what I am sure are ceps due to their colouring and other diagnostic features.

You can see the distinctive webbing on the stipe here, and the pennybun cap is all you need really.

As the evening drew in, I found this orange bolete that may have been picked by a deer (there was a herd in the area).

The New Forest has a “no pick” policy and there are concerns about illegal, commercial-scale picking for posh restaurants, just FYI. All of these mushrooms had already been “naturally” uprooted.

Thanks for reading.