Things to look out for in the garden - recognising fungi

Particularly in the autumn and winter we come across little weird things in our gardens - pale mushrooms that spring up overnight or strange frilly fungi on the trunks of trees or around the base of untreated fences, and more often than not we have no idea what we're looking at. Here's a bit of a guide to help you work it out.

First, terminology - we used to say mushroom to describe fungi that was useful to mankind, and toadstool to denote that which wasn't. However, with recent developments that have used many toadstools in medicine and the increased understanding that we need all plants and creatures to maintain biodiversity, the two terms have fallen from use and we describe all kinds of mushrooms and toadstools together, as gill fungi. Note that none of the fungi describe below are edible!

• Amethyst deceiver - this is a dark violet fungi found on beech wood litter, and named for its amethyst colour and similarity to many other similarly-coloured species.
• Scarlet hood - this bright red species is one of a group of 'wax caps' (as in shiny and with a polished appearance) often found in grazed meadows. They can be spotted from quite a distance as they occur in clumps during the autumn.
• Beef steak fungus is a large fleshy seeming bracket fungus (found on the sides of something like a fence or tree, like a bracket) that is particularly fond of old oaks. You can't mistake this one, as pressing it reveals a red juice.
• Shaggy scale cap is a tuftal species (with sticky-up bits on the cap, like a bad hair day) tawny yellow in colour, with both cap and stem covered in coarse scales. The shaggy scale cap is typically found on or near beech trees and has rusty brown spores.
• Clouded funnel cap - differs from many others in being funnel-shaped rather than umbrella-shaped. It is a large grey species that forms fairy rings in woodland in late autumn.
• Stump puffball - these fat fungi suggest unopened 'mushrooms' but release their spores via an opening in the cap and not from their gills. They grow in cluster on tree stumps.
• Ear fungus - guess what? It's shaped like an ear, jelly-like in texture when fresh and hard and crusty when dry. Very commonly found on dead elderberries.
• Honey fungus is a common parasite on trees and the bane of the gardener. It typically forms huge tufts of honey-coloured 'mushrooms' at the base of the host tree. The white spores of this species can often be seen on the caps within the tuft.

Garden Death Cap photograph by bjorktklingd, used under a creative commons attribution licence

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