This was my perennial spring visit to Blarney Castle. It’s a great place to see a huge variety of trees and plants, especially the Gunnera which are spreading rampantly along the river. But regarding the mushrooms, last year I found some Lepista sordida and this year some Sepia Boletes. So one species a year…, which is one better then none. All the flowerbeds in the park are covered with bark mulch and I assumed this is what the Boletes were liking but apparently it’s the tree in the middle that’s important to them. Quite an attractive mushroom – several were growing in one of the beds but totally absent elsewhere which is a bit strange.

I’ve been trying quite hard to find some Morels, which is the only significant fungus group that I’ve never encountered, and I thought this might be an occasion to do so. According to QI if you repeat the name of a thing you’re looking for then you’re more likely to spot it, so I was wandering around muttering “morel, morel, morel,…” under my breath, but of the Morchella tribe there were none.