Fungi Friday 🍄

Lower Beeding, West Sussex, September 2025

In September I was out on my bike to do some low-carbon mushrooming. It’s a great way to get into some old woodlands that are very rich in fungi.

Sussex is home to an astonishing array of ancient trees, most notably oak trees. This one is called the Sun Oak and is aged to over 800-years. It is a truly spectacular tree, and such is its age it has developed hospitality for fungi.

One of these fungi is the ancient oak’s friend, the beefsteak (Fistulina hepatica, iNaturalist). I say it’s a friend because it slowly decomposes excess pieces of deadwood the tree doesn’t need anymore. People often think it’s a bad thing for a tree, but not all brackets can cause structural problems for trees. Beefsteak is a helper.

The fruiting body is often a bright red. One of my favourite stories about this fungus is that people have mistaken it for body parts and called the police. Presumably we’re talking about beefsteaks that have fallen off the tree. It may be inappropriate to say this now, but it is an edible species.

I found another beefsteak that looked unusual. These pics are not great unfortunately, as I was hot and flowing with endorphins from my bike ride. This is actually another fungus growing on an older beefsteak. I think it’s ochre cushion (iNaturalist).

Elsewhere in the oak, one opening was housing sulphur tuft deep inside the trunk.

Behold, this magnificent tree.

Thanks for reading.