Some Autumn Fungi

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 On walks through the woods over the last few days I have been seeing some good growth of fungi. Here is a photograph on the common ink cap mushroom taken on a dog walk last week.

These mushrooms appear very soon after some rain - one day they are not there and the next day suddenly they are. Apparently they are edible - but with a proviso that puts me off! If they are eaten and you have consumed alcohol either three days before or three days afterwards they are poisonous (it used to be called. "tipplers' bane" because of this).! Not on my breakfast menu therefore.Common ink cap were used in the past to make ink for important documents. There are a number of other species in the ink cap family.
Another pretty little fungus was growing on a dead branch near where I was putting out camera traps.

This is a jelly fungus and I think it is one that goes by the common name of "witches butter". This fungus appears after rain and if it dries out to a thin dry film it can reconstitute itself if it gets wet again. This also goes by the name of yellow brain fungus. The old story was that if this fungus grew on your gate post it meant that a witch had cast a spell on your house. This one is at least 500m away so I reckon we are safe.

Diary
Well it rained all night again. The stream is now running again after being dry for at least three months this year. We have never seen it dry out for so long. I am struggling to find records that are very local to us but it seems that we have had the driest summer for at least 20 years and possibly more.I reckon that the stream will flow constantly now until next summer.




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