Fungi Friday Adventure: Wandering Among Ash Trees with Tiny Mushrooms

I whooshed out to the woods today unprepared, with just my phone and camera. It was a crisp autumn afternoon, and I never thought I would spend longer than usual there.

Accidental shot, but cool. At 3 pm, it was still bright, and as usual, I didn’t think it would get very dark in an hour. I went to the woodland full of ash trees, as I haven’t seen the place for quite some time. Just a short walk through the village and a little entrance leads me there.

As soon as I entered the woodland, I fairly quickly found these. Candlesnuff fungus. They look a bit eerie and they love damp and mossy, fairy-like places.

In low light, the white tips almost appear to glow, hence the name candlesnuff (just like a candle wick being snuffed out.)

You see them around when dry, but today they looked really fresh and perky.

Then I discovered a new type of mushroom, the Butter cap (Rhodocollybia butyracea). They have unusual margins on the cap, very slimy, smooth and oily, hence the name.

The Butter cap has a white and very pale gill, which is adnexed or sometimes free, and curls up when mature.

The stem is paler at the top, and the base is bulgy and spongy, yet very tough. This mushroom is edible but requires peeling of the cap due to its stickiness and gluey texture, so I didn’t bother picking them.

I found an artist’s conk on a log, but the wood didn’t have enough nutrients for it to grow bigger. These fungi break down the wood they grow on, so the conk only develops as long as the log can provide enough food.

There were also loads of deceivers, as the ground was too wet, and these mushrooms were all falling over.

I always like its pinky gills.

And you'll also see a few of these cute ones growing on the leaves.

So I walked around under the trees, kicking the leaves. There were so many branches around; ash trees are known to drop a lot of them. A few branches and twigs had tiny oysterlings growing on them.

At a glance, they look just like white spots.

You don’t notice them much, but if you really look closer, they are beautiful little mushrooms.

I decided to pick some branches and make a shelter for wild animals. Took me 30 minutes atleast, and it was fun.

Hopefully, some mushrooms will grow there as well, something to look forward to checking in the future.

It was getting dark, and I needed to head home. I was amazed at how quickly the light faded. With only my phone light to guide me, I couldn’t see very far, just enough to make out brambles about a meter ahead. All I could hear were birds flying away as I passed, disturbing them.

As I stooped down through the brambles, my phone lit up these little ones, which look like the common Mycena, growing at the end of a log.

They were so tiny, almost hiding in the crevices, looking safe and comfortable.

The brambles were too dense to pass through, so I had to change direction and ended up getting lost. But then I followed the sound of a car and found the edge of the woods, not the usual exit. I had to jump over a stream before walking home. And just as the heavy rain fell, I was home.

The rain is pouring and pattering outside, it feels so nice to be warm and cosy inside. What a Fungi Friday adventure!

Hope you all had a good one.
Mariah 💕