Fungi

Our usual morning walk through the woods to the village starts through this Scots pine plantation where the path crosses earth which is hard with old, tangled roots yet is much dug up by the local rabbits. It's not normally a section of the walk that's of any great interest but today we immediately stumbled upon....

....this fungus, about 10cm across, the upper part of which looked like the worn leather one associates with ancient, well-used armchairs. It was one of....

....several of the same species scattered across the woodland floor. This picture shows that they are pores, that is, fungi whose fruits are formed of a sponge-like material. Beyond this, I have no idea of their identification.

However, these set the agenda for the rest of the walk for we....

....continued to find a wide variety of fungi, many of them either exposed and alone, and subject to the depredation of the local slugs or....

....deeply buried and inaccessible, like this one protected by dead gorse, or....

....these, fly agaric, which were hiding so deep off the path that reaching them to take this picture was a contorting and somewhat painful experience.

There's now no doubt that this is going to be a super year for fungi, comparable to 2020, so it also looks like being another year for me of fungal identification failures and frustrations. These niggle me because I would love to know all their names but I console myself with the thought that, whether I identify a fungus or not, finding each of this huge variety of mysterious creatures is a joyful experience.