Fascinating Fungi

As autumn began approaching, a range of different fungi started to appear in the gardens. Garden Volunteer Bob Mansfield tells us more:

Two recent arrivals at Beningbrough have cause some interest.  The first is this rather dramatic example, seen at a distance on a yew tree in the American Garden:

On closer inspection it looks like this:

The common name for this rather dramatic fungus is ‘Chicken of the Woods’ (laetiporus sulphureus). Other common names include crab of the woods, sulphur shelf, the chicken mushroom, or the chicken fungus, because it apparently tastes like chicken. However, we do not recommend that you take off a slice for the frying pan: the fungus can absorb toxins from the tree in which it is growing, in this case yew, which is highly toxic.

The second example appeared in a grass verge and was spotted at about 11am one day at the beginning of September:

The fungus is very small, about 3 inches high, is almost transparent and has been identified as the Pleated Ink Cap - Parasola Plicatilis (our thanks to Rhona Sutherland from Oswaldkirk for helping us with the identification).  We were lucky to spot this example as it is very short lived – by 2.00pm it looked like this:

.. and an hour later it had completely disappeared.  We will keep our eyes open for fungi and will report any other unusual sightings!