Fungal Spring

It's springtime in the world of fungi, with fungal 'flowers' - the fruiting bodies - of dozens of varied species popping up all over the place. Those who know say that a sunny spring and summer, followed by recent wet weather, has provided ideal growing conditions.

Many of the fungi we're finding are solo, with not another of their relatives in sight, like this....

....shaggy ink cap which has chosen to grow in coarse gravel by the side of one of the forestry tracks. Previously, when we've found this species, they have been in groups of a dozen or more, like....

....these puffballs. Puffballs seem to be enjoying a particularly good 'spring', these ones being unusual in that they are all relatively small, perhaps 20mm across, while....

....these beauties are the more usual size of about 40mm, and are probably dusky puffballs.

Bright yellow to yellowy-brown seems to be the colour of the moment this spring, the most richly coloured being this chanterelle, while there are....

....plenty of these, like the ink cap mentioned earlier, growing happily in a bed of gravel.

Colour certainly attracts attention yet some of the duller species have some interesting features, like the patterning on the cap of what may be false saffron milkcap. Sadly....

....the ones most commonly overlooked are those with the dullest colours - like dung brown.