Late September Fungi

We noticed a distinct drop-off in the number and variety of fungi we were finding as we moved in to the latter part of September but this may simply have been that, as autumn began to assert itself and the leaves accumulated on the forest floor, so the fungi became increasingly difficult to see. Nevertheless, we've found some wonderful specimens, some of which I have managed, very tentatively, to identify.
 

That we found this particular fungus was sheer luck, for it is tiny, no more than 5mm across, yet I managed to identify it very quickly, at least in part from....

....the spindly black stem: it's horsehair parachute, Gymnopus (Mirasmus) androsaceus, growing amid the bright green of the mosses on a rotten log.

This beauty, with its intriguing texture, is a parasol mushroom, perhaps Macrolepiota procera, which will open out into a flat, plate-like structure as it matures.

One of the things that I simply do not understand about fungi is that it is not uncommon to find just one specimen of a particular species all by itself, which is what happened in this case. The photo hardly does justice to its colour: it's the amethyst deceiver, Laccaria amethystina, though I'm not at all sure what the deceiver bit refers to.

I've failed to identify this one but it, too, is included today at least in part for its colour. From above it looks like a cookie slightly overdone around the edges but....

....its colours are even richer when it's viewed from the side. It, too, was all by itself.

I'm on fairly safe ground with this one. It's the common puffball, of which there are a lot around at the moment. Common it may be but what is remarkable about the species its its ability to live on the most unpromising substrate. Here, Lycoperdon perlatum is thriving on gravel laid and compacted on a mountain bike track.