With the wet weather we are currently experiencing, mushrooms in my local wood are quite literally popping up everywhere. The wood still wears the coat of summer but on the floor, it is most definitely autumn. I took a walk in my local wood this afternoon as a means of escaping the endless hours of processing images and sorting pictures for a forthcoming exhibition. On the wetter, lower slopes were all manner of species including boletus, puffball, milkcap, funnel, magpie inkcap. sulphur tuft and the most conspicuous of all, the slender parasol.
Upon noticing this marvellous 'troop' I went straight home, grabbed my camera bag and returned to photograph them. If I were to leave them for another day they would have gone over or even kicked over. I then spent the next hour photographing the fungi from various angles, concentrating on using a wide-angle to exaggerate their size and in the case of the image below, trying to achieve something a little different to the norm. If you are interested in attending a mushroom photography workshop, please click here as I am running two in October at a favourite haunt.
Standing close to 8 inches high with a cap the size of small dinner plate they are tough to resist for both the photographer and the forager for they are simply delicious! Over the last couple of years I've become a bit of an anorak when it comes to mycology brought on by me spending countless hours in the field photographing mushrooms from September to November. Identifying them in preparation for the agent invariably means I end up reading about them and finding out if they are edible or not. Now, don't get me wrong, I don't walk around a wood picking every edible fungus but if there are good numbers of funnel or slender parasol in a 'troop' I will pick one or two. Carefully picking a mushroom causes no harm since you are simply picking the fruiting body. The part that really matters is underground, the mycelium. Leave this intact and it will grow again. It's a little like taking backberries or apples. To state the obvious, you should NEVER consume a mushroom unless you are 100% it is edible. If you are ever in any doubt, leave well alone. Many folk are surprised to learn that there are a number of species found in our woods that can kill.
I'll be blunt here, by and large, the British are useless at identifying wild food, edible mushrooms in paerticular which I think is a bit of a shame. In mainland Europe it's a family pastime to go out mushroom and berry picking. Children go out with their parents, learn from them then pass on their knowledge to their children. Even if you have no intention on picking them and all you want to do is look or take pictures, consider taking a pocket guide along. You will be surprised at how it can give focus to an afternoon stroll and with it a deeper understanding of the natural world.
