Appearing on a tree near you …
I didn’t like the fungi at first, but then it grew on me. (Come on, the old ones are always best!)
The photo (below) – and the ones in the accompanying gallery – are of fungi on just one tree in Caversham. It’s too easy to not stop, look up and notice. And it’s always worth noticing fungi when you see it – it changes over time, and often disappears.
There’s a huge range of different types of fungi – from the edible to the poisonous. The mushrooms you get in the supermarket being the obvious example of the edible sort. (Of course, you could say that they are all edible, but some will be the last thing you eat. I would strongly suggest a cautious approach!)
It’s a statement of the obvious to say that fungi are crucial to life for all of us but the little science I know isn’t really worthwhile repeating – I’m no scientist. If you’re keen, I’ve included a couple of links, below, as starters for finding out more. I’ve tried to pick two very different approaches to the topic. But however you approach it, fungi are fascinating.
Incidentally, in France it used to be the case that you could take a mushroom you’d picked into the local pharmacy, and they would identify it for you as edible or not. Whether that remains true I don’t know.
As well as the photo below, there’s a gallery of images on Caversham’s sister site, RG4.
The two sites looking at fungi that I mentioned:
