Whoever planned the planting of the woodlands which stretch for some miles around Dunrobin Castle organised them into blocks, each with its own personality. The most pleasant to walk through are the mixed woodland where deciduous species outnumber conifers, and the least pleasant, by far, are the stands of spruce. These trees were planted very close together and have now grown vertically to some considerable height so....
....even on a bright, sunny day they are dark, enclosed and rather sinister places. The trouble is that fungi seem to thrive in these sunless conditions, and this means that my very able assistant recently had to deploy some....
....very modern technology to ensure we obtained good pictures.
Perhaps one of the most spectacular fungi that enjoy the spruce leaf-litter are the parasol mushrooms, of which there were, at this spot, some half-dozen large and very fine specimens.
Anything growing here has to be pretty vigorous as it has to push up through a depth of twigs and pine needles. This is the largest fungus so far, over a foot across. It may be the giant funnel, but a description of this species suggest that it doesn't like dark places.
I have no idea what species these are but it's a very nice picture of two fungi enjoying life in the Dunrobin spruce litter.
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