Yesterday for Nature Walk’s September outing was to Mutters Moor led by this months expert Dr Stuart Skeates, a retired GP and a mycologist for around 40 years.

After a very disappointing recce that Stuart and I went on the previous day I didn’t think our foray would last more than an hour as there was so little fungi about but I was wrong. No there wasn’t much fungi about but we had a very interesting morning from Stuart, starting from items in his car boot; the slice of beech that had the fungal battle lines which woodturners treasure as spaltered wood, the log which felt light as balsa wood after all the lignum had rotted away and the bag of ‘bootlaces’ from ‘honey fungus’. The latter which rings the death nell to trees and shrubs when found growing in woods and gardens.

Then off we went “to the woods”. We had to take notice of the first fungi we saw, a tiny mushroom no more than an inch high (we may not see many more) a tiny parasol of the Ink cap family. Then we saw a pair of rather attractive bright orange spherical fungi which one member thought was rather rude. Oh dear, I don’t know what she would have said if we had come across the Stinkhorn fungus, Phallus impudicus. This was of the Gymnopilus junonius with the common name of Rust gill, also known as Laughing Jim and the book says “because it can make you laugh uncontrollably” if eaten …..but not advised. Our next notable fungi was Dyer’s maizegill, Phaeolus schweinitzii which Stuart informed us was used for dying cloth and was a type of bracket fungus, as was the Southern bracket which we found decorating a dead trunk of a tree way up above and below our heads. Neither one would be edible or another orange one Stuart found the False chanterelle. That one would give you a rather nasty stomach upset and hallucinations not to be confused with the true Chanterelle which is said to be delicious.

Then I looked at my watch for the first time and it was 11.50 so much for only enough to interest us for and hour. We just carried on a little further and just to prove they were still about we spotted the Porcelain fungus, Oudemansiella mucida on a fallen branch. We had seen this last year in copious amounts but only seen it as little tiny blobs until then.

I asked Stuart if he could help us with a good app to help us ID fungi and he told us about a recent survey of 16 app producers who were given pictures of varies fungi. The best one had only a 60% accuracy rate and several identified the Death cap fungi as edible. So I will finish with a few words of caution. Fungi can be delicious but the saying goes “Don’t go for lunch on a hunch”, know within any shadow of doubt what they are. Some you can only eat once!!!!

Thank you Stuart for a very interesting morning.

Janet Fernley