Fairy Toadstool Amanita muscaria or Fly Agaric

The Fly Agaric needs little introduction.  It is the toadstool that graces all books about fairies!
It's not so common in real life, and I only ever find them singly. It is widespread and found mostly in birch woodlands .

How do you like your beefsteak (fungus)?

I was sent a picture of a pink fungus.  It looked a bit amorphous, no obvious stem or cap.  Apparently it was growing on an old oak in Bradgate Park.

This was an important clue in it's identification. I looked up the scientific name, Fistulina hepatica.  Hepatica means liver.  Young fungi look more like liver before maturing into the instantly recognisable beefsteak.
To check my theory out, I went up to Jubilee woods where I knew there was a tree with beefsteak fungi. Sure enough, it didn't disappoint. It is amazing how very much like a beefsteak they look. These ones were a bit old, however, and had lost their pink raw meat colour. One had even fallen on the floor.

But further down the same fallen tree, I found the evidence I was looking for: a small, pink amorphous blob of the hepatica type.  So this confirmed the ID of my friend's initial find.

Eerie glow in the woods? Watch out for coral spot fungus!

Pretty pink or orange spots are the fungus Nectria cinnabarina, which has to be one of the most scrumptious names of all the fungi.  Don't eat this one though, it's poisonous.

Oh, and it's bioluminescent!

Ashen chanterelle with false gills

Canthalrellus cinereus

A couple of years ago in the Outwoods I found Cratellus cornucopoides, and thought it was the most magnificent fungi I'd ever seen. Large trumpets that folded in on each other, black and foreboding, like a witch's cauldron.  I've been back a few times since to the very spot, but there has been nothing to see.  

This year, just a about 100m away but in Jubilee Woods, I thought I had come across it again! It was not quite as big, and not quite as funnel-like, but I could have thought it was the Black Trumpet or tromoette de morte as the cornucopoides is known.  When I took it home to dissect I realised it was different; it had very marked (and false) Gill plates, that literally just fell on in my hand. 

Chanterelles don't have this, and on further investigation I found that I had the Ashen chanterelle, which has recently moved genus. 

Stinkhorn volva dissection

The young immature form of the Stinkhorn, Phallus impudicus was in great abundance in the local woods. The volva is round and found just emerging from the soil.  This is one I dissected.

The first cut went through a fairly tough protective layer in white. It was quite thin, and easily slid back over slimy gelatinous yellow ball inside.

i then sliced this material. 

The middle layer was a darker tissue and more frilly. I think this becomes the gills. It was more dense than it looked.

The white section grows into the phallus which is up to 20 cm tall. They don't seem to stay upright for long, maybe a day, probably knocked over by animals