Fungi Friday 🍄

I was walking down the street the other day, passing a large beech tree that I’ve posted about before. We’ve had quite a lot of rain in recent weeks and it’s always worth having a gander.

I did pause to think, should I traipse over there and crouch down next to the mushroom. There was only one answer. I was pleased to see it was an amanita, but couldn’t pin down a general ID. It’s not false deathcap because there’s no remnant of the veil and the spots are not the same, though the colouring may be. You can see the beech leaves and cases around the fungus.

It’s not a deathcap because the cap isn’t smooth. My first guess was panther cap, but a very pale one. More time is probably needed to look at the options and how much something like panther cap may vary.

A more ‘qualified’ guess (I looked in my mushroom books and on iNaturalist) is Amanita franchetii, which would be more exciting.

Thanks for reading.