Category: Fungi

Honey Fungus

Drawing board

My recycled materials made-to-measure for A5 sketchbooks drawing board is proving useful as a lightweight outdoor studio/nature table.

honey fungus

I wouldn’t normally pick anything on a woodland trail to draw it but I don’t think anyone would object to me taking a closer look at this honey fungus, provided I don’t go spreading the spores around.

honey fungus

I’ve passed this old honey fungus a couple of times, deciding that I’d prefer to draw a fungus that isn’t so overgrown with dead grass stems and starting to get buried in fallen leaves.

honey fungus

But that’s really the story of what’s going on here. The honey fungus are returning these birch logs at the edge of the path in New Hall Wood into the leaf mould of the woodland floor.

Morrel

Surprised to see this morrel growing by the edge of the pavement not far from the entrance to Coxley Woods. It is edible but I think that I’ll give this one a miss.

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White Saddle

white saddle fungus

We found a small colony of white saddle fungus, Helvella crispa, alongside the track on the south bank of the River Aire between Mickletown and Methley.

Yellow Brain Fungus

yellow brain fungus

For my winter Dalesman spread, I needed a spot of colour so I’m including yellow brain fungus, Tremella mesenterica, which, as here, can also be orange. I photographed last January at Emroyd Common, growing on elder, but it doesn’t feed directly on wood: it’s parasitic on species of a crusty fungus, Peniophora, which grows on dead twigs and branches.

Autumn Fungi

Fungi at Harlow Carr this morning included common puffball and a large bracket growing on beech.

Lunchtime sketches.

Stump Fungus

sweet chestnut bark

There’s a sweet, moist, earthy smell of autumn in the woodland around the Lower Lake at Nostell Priory this morning. The bark of the old sweet chestnuts here reminds me of Arthur Rackham fairy tale illustrations.

stump fungus

On a fallen trunk, this fungus is sprouting from a crevice, perhaps a species of Mycena?

Hoof Fungus

This hoof fungus, Fomes fomentarius, appears to have powdered the roots of the beech it is growing on with a film of rusty spores.

It’s also known as the tinder bracket because it has been used as in fire-starting since prehistoric times.