Identifying Woodland Fungi

October is an ideal time to take a slow wander through the woods looking down rather than up in order to spot the fruiting bodies of fungi (toadstools and mushrooms) poking up through the leaves and grass.

Last year’s fungi walk revealed that Fox Hill contains many different fungi and these last few weeks they have started to make their presence obvious as they shoot up out of the ground or rotting stumps.

Whilst freshly sprouted specimens can look like the images in a fungi guide, once ravaged by slugs and snails or knocked about, getting a solid identification can be tricky.
Here are some tips to help with identification:

• Note where the fungi is growing – is it from the ground, on dead or rotting wood or sprouting from an apparently healthy tree?
• If it is on wood try to identify the type of tree as well – some fungi only grow on specific species.
• Get down and take a Selfie!
  • Take photos from the side low to the ground as well as from the top to get as much detail as possible of size and overall shape.
  • Use your phone camera in selfie-mode to take a picture under the cap.
    For fungi on stalks the colour and shape of the gills and if there is a skirt (where the gills were attached to the stem as it came up through the ground) are important identifiers.
• If the fungi is already on the ground see if the flesh has bruised a different colour – another important differentiator between similar-looking species.

None of the common fungi found in Fox Hill are edible and some are very poisonous.
Look but do not touch is the safest policy!

Here are some of the fungi you might see around the woods over the coming weeks.

Brown Roll-Brim
(Paxillus involutus)
Found on the woodland floor in amongst the leaf litter.

A Deadly poisonous but very common UK fungus, it’s main habitat is broadleaved woodlands, especially those with birch trees like Fox Hill, but it is also found in parks and gardens

Sulphur Tuft
(Hypholoma fasciculare)
Often seen growing in clumps from rotting tree stumps.

It plays a significant role in the woodland ecosystem by decomposing lignin and cellulose in dead wood and recycling the nutrients back into the soil.

Common Earthball
(Scleroderma citrinum)
Bright yellow globes in amongst  the leaf litter in the clearings.

Not to be confused with Puffballs which are paler.
Host to the rare parasitic bolete fungus that grows nowhere else.

Turkeytail
(Trametes versicolor)
A bracket fungus often growing in tiered layers from dead standing wood.

The colours of the stripes may vary. 
Has been used in the past to decorate hats!

Birch Polypore / Razorstrop Fungus
(Piptoporus betulinus)

A long-lived bracket fungus of birch trees only.

Once used to sharpen tools & razor blades.

Oetzi, the Iceman found frozen in an Alpine glacier had some of this fungus with him probabaly due to its antibacterial properties.

Emerald/Turquoise Elf Cup
(Chlorociboria aeruginascens)

The tiny cups appear on rotting wood – this fungi is most easily spotted by the way the mycelium stains the wood greeny-blue.

The green pigment called is called xylindein coined the term “green oak”. This stained wood was highly valued by 18th and 19th-century woodworkers for its use in decorative inlays such as Tonbridgeware.