Fungi

What surprised me about the fungi in the Maryburgh Community Woodland was that there were fruits for much of the year. Most started to appear in any abundance from July onwards. As it has been several years since I attempted to identify fungi I have decided that for this page I will be regularly posting composite images of each of the fungi I have seen within the woodland. Who knows, this may prompt me to get the bags (to store each individual fungus), gloves (some of them may be poisonous) and paper (to take spore prints to aid identification) ready to identify the fungi in later years.

One thing that was really apparent as I was wandering through the woodland looking at the variety of fungi was how eaten they all were. A couple of the fungi did have insects on them but I suspect that there are also mammals and birds eating them too.

This blog was originally published on:

16 July 2023

and subsequently modified on:

10 February 2024

Hair Ice - Photographed: 12 November 2023

When I was walking my dog I came across this lovely, and somewhat rare phenomenon. It has several names: Hair Ice, Frost Beard or Ice Wool. I had to grab a photo with my phone camera. It’s quite rare because it needs certain conditions to appear:

decomposing wood
humid air which is slightly under 0° C
a broadleaf woodland
latitudes between 45 and 55° N
and the vital component – the fungus exidiopsis effusa

So what happens? Basically, the wood excretes water from its wood rays and when it hits the cold air it freezes as it comes out of the wood, and forms a fluffy looking formation. It was research by German and Swiss scientists in 2015, that found that it only occurs if the fungus Exidiopsis effusa is present, which is what makes it quite rare – not all woodlands have exidiopsis effusa present.