Colgate, West Sussex, September 2025
In mid-September I was out and about one morning to witness a big ol’ bolete and hundreds of fly agaric in the woods.
This penny bun (Boletus edulis) was the biggest I have ever seen. I was just surprised it was still there, seeing as there was evidence the foragers had hit them elsewhere in the wood. A few days later it had gone.
That massive penny bun aside, I saw fly agaric in their hundreds. September is the best month to see and photograph fly agaric, I think. The leaves haven’t fallen to cover them, they have a brightness about them which is just wonderful.
In a more secluded part of the wood, there was evidence of penny bun foraging. I’ve read about this before, people slicing the stipes of boletes they’ve picked and leaving them behind, perhaps to check for insects and worms presence, or with some (probably wrong) notion that it may help them to produce more spores. I dunno.
They had missed or left some of the smaller ones, though. This is a Site of Special Scientific Interest, so I think there are restrictions on picking. Not that there is any information provided at all that will educate or advise people. Sigh.
This is one of the Leccinum boletes. I’m not convinced it’s brown birch bolete because the stipe (a bit out of focus here) lacks the dark webbing, but I’m learning. UPDATE: 22/12/25 – I now think this is ghost bolete (Leccinum holopus – iNat link).
Rollrims have had a good season, or perhaps I am only noticing how common they are. I think this is brown rollrim, a deadly mushroom if you eat it.
Now then, this was a lovely find. I never feel like I have enough time to learn the Suillus boletes (iNaturalist), of which this is one. The mushrooms are larch boletes (Suillus gravellei on iNaturalist). There is larch within this woodland complex, but mainly they were surrounded by beech, holly and oak. Who knows what the roots were up to down below, of course.
And here’s a behind the camera shot, which I always enjoy showing. The camera is just sat on the ground, the screen used to focus, etc. The camera is waterproof so it’s find to be on the ground. You have to be less precious about your equipment when you do mushroom photography.
Thanks for reading.
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