I’ve decided to start a series on my Fungi findings starting with the first real outdoors adventure where I found quite a lot of various species / varieties.

-this excursion was attached to a wild camping session I had just a few days before Winter Solstice, December 2018

The following were found in a boggy scrub / brush wood which lies near to an Ancient Oak / Hazel woodland, this particular wood mostly consists of Salix (Willow trees), Some Sambucus (Elder), Crataegus (Hawthorn), Corylus (Hazel) and mixed / some Fraxinus (Ash) and Quercus (Oak) with some scattered wild Malus (Apple / Crab apple).
This scrub wood is bordered between a Brook (Small river) and meadows – let’s give it a name shall we? Hows about the ”Ancient Scrub wood” ? So we all know where I am referring to in future posts …

For foraging, I at that time could only positively ID (thanks to the ”Essential Bushcraft” book by Ray Mears) the ‘Auricularia ariculi judae’ or Jelly Ears / Jews ears as it is commonly known in the UK , I did harvest quite a bit which subsequently ended up in stews and other dishes at home (Below) …

Below: Another shot of the above growing in a large group on another Sambucus ”Elder tree” and another fungi which lives off of dead wood (I still need to ID it, but have heard people refer to similar fungi as ”finger fungi”)

Below: Horses Hoof fungi ? I believe it is but have not yet looked into ID’ing these bracket fungi yet due to being overly obsessed with edible fungi …
PS: I passed by the wood a week ago (mid December 2019) and the below specimen is in-tact and happy as can be!

Below: What is this??? I have seen this since in other woods recently but it is quite interesting …

Another look at the ”finger fungi’‘ (Below):

Below: these are interesting and still, yet to be ID’d by myself …

And finally, the best shot of the lot … more Bracket Fungi but this time in a group on a large decaying branch.  (Still needing ID)
Note: The branch is mostly horizontal and so are the fungi, indicating that the fungi fruiting bodies grew after the tree / branch fell into the current position

Many thanks for joining me on this journey! I have had a great season this Autumn 2019 (Fall) and took many great shots of various fungi, plus harvested some newer specimens which previously have not seen when on the trail … this will all be included in this series chronologically starting from This trip in December 2018.

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