Fungi again

I've said elsewhere in this blog that my knowledge of fungi is quite limited. Like a lot of people I find them somewhat repellent, partly due to their association with dead and dying wood. But, if I come across field mushrooms - an occurence that happens less and less - I'm happy to pick them and eat them. There are people who have a deep interest in fungi and I'm glad that's the case. It means I can use their expertise to identify those that I come across on our travels. Or at least I think I can because with 15,000 or so species in the UK there are many that are similar. The example in the photograph seem to be one of the bracket fungi, possibly Hairy Curtain Crust, but I'm happy to be corrected!

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Nikon Z 5

Fungi

There are about 15,000 types of wild fungi in the UK and my identification skills extend to no more than a dozen or so. Fortunately I can, with 100% certainty, identify field mushrooms and we have for decades collected these and eaten them. On a recent walk on Garway Hill, Herefordshire, an upland of bracken and grass that is closely cropped by sheep and ponies, we came upon these examples. The only red (and white) fungus I know is fly agaric, and these are not they, as they say.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Sony DSC-RX100