The Fungi Diaries

    It's that time of year when the fungi kingdom shows less of its species, most fungus prefer the damper warmer months and not the frost covered months of mid winter.    One of winter's edible fungi are the Wood Ear/Jelly Ear fungus(Auricularia auricula-judae). This very common fungus can be found all year round but is usually more often found in the colder months.    Collected by lovers of edible wild fungi in the winter, these red-brown ear-shaped fruits are often used in Asian cooking such as stir fry and soups but have nothing special in terms of flavour.    Wood Ears are mainly found on dead or living Elder in large numbers, but can be found occasionally on other wood such as beech.    I've found this fungi in many places including my own garden, I have yet to try them as edibles.

    This common fungus is often found on damp rotten hardwood, sometimes inside hollow stumps, notably Beech or Eml. Found any time after June these cups are now worried by the colder winter months, in fact I'm still finding them now in the middle of February.    This fungus is definitely not an edible and if eaten raw they will cause seriously unpleasant stomach upsets.    There are several sites around Upwell and Outwell where these cups seem to flourish.     There are over 100 Peziza species, most of various shades of fawn or brown.

    Well at last we started a new year and one I think we all hope has rather less worry and uncertainty than the last couple. January is one of the slow months in the fungi world, there will be jelly ears and the odd Scarlet elf cup around but mainly we are just left with aged weather beaten fungi left from the autumn months.    I find the months of January  and February not only cold and baron of fungi here in the fens, but also a period of time in which I can plan projects that wander endlessly in my mind. These ideas and dreams include many thoughts of traveling to beautiful moss covered woods and forests where the amazing gems of the fungi kingdom await to pose for my camera lens and ancient churchyards where stunning waxcaps nestle in clean green moss knitted grass.    This year my main objective is to record a complete year's fungi finds in and around Upwell and Outwell. Here in the fens of East Anglia we lack the woodlands found in many other a...