Fungi Friday 🍄

Happy Fungi Friday! 🍄

There’s a pine tree I have seen declining in recent years, dramatically failing in the last year. It’s a big pine tree right outside a nursery school, so a fairly dangerous place for a dead tree.

One afternoon I was passing the area when I saw tree surgeons surveying the tree. From a distance you could see the explosion of mushrooms all the way up and down the tree.

I asked the tree surgeon if I could go closer and take some photos. He had no issues so I went in for a closer look.

I was quite sure it was honey fungus but given time I’m not actually sure about that. It does look as if it is fruiting from the web of hyphae (boot laces) that honey fungus develops under bark.

I love to see this kind of deadwood situation and when it appears in a municipal environment it can cause a stir. We have erased this sight from our landscapes in Britain, but for woodland nature reserves, really.

The more I look at the images I don’t think it’s honey fungus.

Do you know? I love the gills here, they look like haircuts.

And here’s what the children probably did while waiting to go into nursery. Stamped the shrooms to mush! Just as children will have done for thousands of years.

Thanks for reading.