Green Holidays

Thanks to a dry summer - the mushrooms are out in force at the moment in the UK.

I have just finished traipsing around my lawn, crouched over and with wet knees and elbows! That’s right, I have been finding fungi to take great photos of!

You should be out there too checking out your (untreated) lawn or nearby woodlands for some great mushrooms and tree fungi!

After a long dry summer and these past few weeks of heavy rain - the fungus living undergrown have started to bloom.  Be quick though, as a lot of mushrooms change color when they get wet - the brightness is literally washed away!

I know it is near impossible to identify all the tiny brown and white ones if you aren’t an expert - but you can find some red, bright orange, slimy green and even blue mushrooms out there if you just get looking!

Where To Look:
Well, depending on the type of fungi you are looking for, you need to look close to the ground, around the bases of trees and on logs or even high up in the branches.

Bright Orange Fungus

Fungi can live anywhere - including a great shot I saw of a mushroom growing out the back of a live birds head! And, they don’t have to be the typical ‘mushroom’ shape, so get yourself a basic guide to get started.

There are often professional groups that go around to woodlands or historic houses and run a fungal foray with the public to help identify and record important and interesting species - like the Ballerina Wax Cap which is thought to be quite rare.

And, even though they are bright colours, you can’t always see them from afar - you literally need to walk slowly across the land and ope to catch a glimpse of them - I even walked right into a patch of bright yellow ones as you just couldn’t see them over the grass - but from above they were quite a site!

What To Look For:
And, the more you look for them, the more you see - and then you start to notice the common ones and may even learn to identify one or two that you know can’t be anything else. I mean, once you see a few parrot wax caps (they are slimy green mushrooms) you won’t forget them in a hurry!

Slimy Green Parrot Wax Caps

Others are more difficult to identify as you need to look at the gills underneath or see the color of the spores - but they are only really necessary for the experts. I mean, if everyone went around snapping off the heads of every mushroom they saw to see underneath then none of them would send out spores and seed the next generation.

And a woodland with all the mushrooms picked out won’t be any fun for anyone else now will it!

So unless you need to know the exact name of a fungus for something really important (in which case I suggest you find and expert to take with you) - leave them all alone where they grow. Take some great pictures and take them home instead!