Our eagerly awaited annual fungi foray, our guests listen while Francis and Hiram explain what’s in store for us today.Once in the woods Francis gave us a quick course on fungi identification.…. lovely to see the youngsters so interested.…. a lot of fungi have quite a distinctive smell.….. the shape of the gills is a key identification feature….……. as is the texture and colour of the cap.…… a disected eathball reveals its’ inner secrets.….. some fungi can be identified by thier reaction to touch, you can clearly see the “blush” on the underside of this blushing bracket.A variety of birds nest fungi growing on a twig was one of the best finds today.It was a fabulous day to be out in the woods,Nothing is much more majestic than the tall pines reaching out into the clear blue sky!Francis found a stinkhorn, stinky by name and stinky by nature, the smell stayed on his mitten for the rest of the day!……… the disected egg shows the stinkhorn cap forming inside, it will later burst through and reveal itself.An oysterling growing inside a rotting log.Other fungi seen today included yellow flag (very rare), stinking dapperling, blue roundhead (very beautiful), poison pie, common earthball, common yellow brittlegill, common orange jellspot, conifer bluing bracket, pale stagorn, sulphur turf, common rustgill, lilac bonnet, and butter cap.As is customary, our chairman, Ricky Donner, presents a bottle of fine wine to each of our event leaders – Hiram and Francis. Thank you for yet another fabulous morning’s entertainment guys.
