Fungi Friday 🍄

Dulwich, London, Friday 17th November 2023

On a chilly afternoon back in November I was having a work meeting when I noticed a holly leaf resting under a pile of branches and picked it up. I am often on the lookout for parachute mushrooms on the woodland floor in October and November but I’ve only ever seen holly parachute once before.

I picked the leaf up and rested it in the nook of a fencepost, careful not to damage the tiny mushrooms. I had my Olympus Tough TG-6 on me which I used the macro function to try and get some pics of. It wasn’t easy, the mushrooms were really small and the low-light doesn’t help micro four thirds cameras like the TG-6.

The detail was hard to capture. You really need a tripod for this kind of thing, and some supplementary light. Nice bokeh though.

These little parachutes have Hellraiser-like spikes in their caps and bergundy red bases to their stipes, fading to the cream colour of the caps.

Thanks for reading.