Monthly Archives: October 2017

25th October 2017, Around Co Cork

I didn’t do any serious fungus searching on holiday in County Cork this time, but some of the mushrooms I saw around and about were impossible to ignore. I took the pictures on my new phone camera and they’re ok, although the focussing wasn’t as successful as I expected. I didn’t do any investigation on how this particular camera works so I might have been able to do it better. I was expecting the small aperture to make focussing trivially easy but it didn’t seem to be that way.

Anyway, the first find was in Kinsale in a damp roadside flower border: A very strange sight which I wasn’t even sure was a fungus at first – hundreds of Slender Club filaments poking up through the leaf litter, which turned out to be attached to the twigs underneath.

The second find was an impressive stand of Honey Fungus. There was a lot of it about. Walking around the grounds of Blarney castle there were many clumps of honey fungus. I noticed that the recent thinking on this species is that it’s poisonous if eaten regularly. Before that information I did eat some a few years ago, and it was ok, but not really worth bothering with anyway! On the same stump there were also some Goblet Parachutes.

The other find was some Scarletina Boletes growing in the grounds of Blarney Castle. My id on this is very tentative as they are rather unlike my other find of this species. (I suspect that other find was wrongly identified rather than this one – I might go back and reconsider it.) It is very striking how quickly the flesh turns almost black as soon as they’re handled or cut. This year Blarney Castle didn’t have as many mushrooms as I was expecting, and this was the best of the bunch.


1. Slender Club (Macrotyphula juncea).
Growing from rotting twigs. Large patches of many spikes. Generally around 6cm high. About 1mm wide. Not much smell, a bit fungusy.

2. Honey Fungus (Armillaria mellea).
Growing from large stump. Hundreds in clusters. Caps up to about 8cm across. Fungusy smell.

3. Goblet Parachute (Marasmiellus vaillantii).
Growing on fragments of rotting wood on top of a tree stump. A few clusters. Caps up to 2cm across. Not distinctive. ID is fairly likely.

4. Scarletina Bolete (Boletus luridiformis).
Growing around single isolated larch tree in Blarney Castle grounds. Several scattered around. Cap up to 12cm across. Not distinctive. Bruising balck-blue and turning dark black-blue very quickly when cut. I've identified this as a Scarletina Bolete although it doesn't look much like the Scarletina that I found in Knole Park. I will have to review that id. ID is possible.

10th October 2017, Joydens Wood

This was my first visit to Joydens Wood. It’s an ancient woodland so should be a happy hunting ground for fungi, but was unfortunately vandalised by the Forestry Commission onwards from the 50’s. (They cleared existing flora and planted alien tree species/varieties.) But it’s now in recovery…

I honestly didn’t find many mushrooms. The habitat has a lot of variety with many different tree species scattered throughout, so should be good, but something with the weather this year must have discouraged them.

No matter, there is some advantage in not finding any striking distinctive mushrooms, in that I pay more attention to the drab boring ones! So Wood Woollyfoot (assuming that my identification is correct) is one of the most common species but not recorded by me before. Then there’s lots of different Bonnets and they all look fairly similar, but Angels Bonnet is new one for me and quite striking in the way it has grown in a curve around its branch. Pluteus cinereofuscus is just a moderately unimpressive looking type of Shield but it only took me 20 minutes to identify (at home) so I must be getting better at this. I wouldn’t normally bother with Sulphur Tuft or Brick Tuft as they’re so common but beggars can’t be choosers. The Sulphur Tufts were much prettier than usual. The Charcoal Burner wasn’t in the woods but beside the busy North Cray Road. I tasted a small part of this one (as the mildness or heat can be important for identification) and it was mild and quite nice. I need to pay more attention to Russulas as this one is good to eat according to my books.


1. Stump Puffball (Lycoperdon pyriforme).
Growing in big clusters on rotting logs. Lots of clusters. Up to 4.5cm across. No smell. Sporeprint Dark grey brown. Spores 4-5.5µ x 3.5-4.5µ.

2. Unidentified.
Growing beside rotting log, on soil/humus or maybe buried wood. Lots scattered in small area. Cap up to 1cm across, stem up to 3cm long. Faint smell, perhaps fungusy. Poor pictures as the mushrooms were in a dark place on a dark day under thick dark tree cover! I've given up on identification due to poor pictures and lack of distinctive features. Sporeprint Whitish but not enough to be sure. Spores 6.5-8µ x 5-6.5µ.

3. Pluteus cinereofuscus.
Growing on rotting log. One. Cap 2.5cm, stem 3cm. No smell. Striate cap. It's hard to discriminate between the various types of small Shield, especially when there's only one specimen, but P.cinereofuscus is likely. ID is fairly likely. Sporeprint Pale terracota. Spores 6-7.5µ x 5-6.5µ.

4. Sulphur Tuft (Hypholoma fasciculare).
Growing on large rotting log in clusters. Lots of clusters. No smell. I photographed the perfect looking young specimens, before their spreading and flattening. Sporeprint Dark grey brown. Spores 5-6.5µ x 4-5µ.

5. Brick Tuft (Hypholoma lateritium).
Growing on rotting log. Some clusters. These had caps up to 2cm across but I think they're very young specimens. No smell. Very young specimens so still covered with veil material. ID is very likely. Spores 5-6µ x 3-4.5µ.

6. Wood Woollyfoot (Collybia peronata).
Growing through needle litter under pines. Several single mushrooms dotted around separately. Cap 3cm, stem 6cm. Slight fungusy smell. Very woolly foot. This doesn't look so much like the pictures of Wood Woollyfoot that I've seen but it is a variable species and these do have very woolly feet! ID is fairly likely. Sporeprint Whitish but not enough to be sure. Spores 6.5-9µ x 4-5.5µ.

7. Angels Bonnet (Mycena arcangeliana).
Growing on dead branch. Big clusters. Cap up to 1.5cm across. No smell. Quite woolly foot. Could be another type of bonnet, but Angels Bonnet is the most likely. ID is very likely. Sporeprint Whitish but not enough to be sure. Spores 5.5-8µ x 4.5-6µ.

8. Charcoal Burner (Russula cyanoxantha).
Growing through grass near to beech tree. A few scattered around. Cap 4cm, stem very short. Hardly any smell, perhaps fruity. Old decrepit ones smelt of fish. Very mild taste. I think these were young, as the stems were still quite short. ID is almost sure. Sporeprint Whitish. Spores 6.5-7.5µ x 5-6.5µ.