Fungi Friday 🍄

Low Weald near Petworth, West Sussex, 21st October 2023

Now there’s a blog title you never thought you’d read. The good thing is that every word of it is true. Anything is possible in the world of fungi.

In mid-late October 2023 I visited the deepest, darkest, most ecologically dynamic area of the Sussex Low Weald while I was passing through. It was prime magpie inkcap time, as the photos below attest.

These two are surrounded by ash saplings. The trees won’t get far because of another fungus, ash dieback disease.

I was using my 12-100mm lens (24-200 equiv.) for these images, so the approach is a zoom not me inching closer, if that makes sense.

There had been torrential downpours earlier in the day, but the sun came out and nearly bleached this mature mag.

In their early stages magpie inkcaps really are quite pale and caramel coloured. I love the colours in these images.

I had to cap my lens during a downpour. After the rain there was some condensation on the lens which made this kind of dreamy image as the sun caught the mushroom cap.

Now, it wasn’t just magpies that I saw. This was a fine looking hedgehog mushroom (Hydnum repandum) growing under holly. No, I didn’t forage it. This is a SSSI so it’s illegal to do so.

As for the parachutes, there were hundreds of garlic parachute (Mycetinis alliaceus) alongside the main track.

They are pungent, as their name suggests. The stipe is a very dark, almost black colour, which contrasts strongly with their caps.

I am fairly confident this is a young couple of garlic parachutes, appearing in rather different colours at first.

This is how I often find them, and they really do smell. I don’t know why, but it’s another thing that the internet can’t replicate. Get out there!

Thanks for reading.