Another round of natural history miniature goodies :)
I loved this theme & may revisit it in the future… in the mean time, follow me on instagram for more timely updates (especially if you’re interested in purchasing, since I post there a bit more frequently) and while most of these pieces have now sold, you can check out my shop here to see what other things I’ve got listed if you’re so inclined.
These gorgeous little milkcaps are easily recognised by their fluffy bears and pink colouring - though the latter hasn’t shown up well in the photo here. Like all their cousins in the Lactariusgenus, they will produce a white latex ‘milk’ when their gills are damaged. As it’s relatively uncommon in Britain, I didn’t want to disturb this single one to photograph the gills, though.
They’re considered edible if carefully prepared, but if eaten incorrectly cooked they can cause stomach upsets.
Found these old pictures of beauts spotted on a trip to Denmark to visit a friend who migrated there. Despite them being the wild mushrooms I most frequently gather for food (both then and now), I didn’t take these, being relatively new to foraging and terrified there was some Danish lookalike I wasn’t aware of.
I’m not certain of this ID - at first I thought they were false chanterelles (Hygrophoropsis aurantiaca), but their gills are too large and distinct from the cap. I think these may be young common funnels, and if so would expect them to turn a lighter buff colour and develop a rougher stem as they mature. It doesn’t feel quite right though, so if anyone’s got any ideas, let me know!
Gorgeous little specimen - one of 5 or 6 that I spotted on a roadside verge on my cycle home from work, which came home with me and topped a noodle soup.
I’m kinda proud that I can now spot these from above! Unlike their cousins, the wood blewit, which have a distinct purple cap, field blewits are a more modest buff brown. Like a lot of fungi, though, with a lot of hunting and spotting and practise you start to just ‘get a feel’ for what they look like and spot them more easily, before using more distinct features (such as the purple stem) to make a definitive positive ID.
Beautiful little specimen of an incredible fungi - see past posts for more. These always make me smile a lil because they’re one of a few fungi my husband can ID because they’re so common and I always point them out.
My absolute faves! The young lobes on the left became chicken nuggets of the woods with my flatmates (”I can’t believe they said they were making fancy flat dinner and it’s chicken nuggets”) and the older ones on the right became a lovely chicken pie with white wine, rosemary and thyme.
This is fairly uncommon in the UK, though grey spotted amanitas (Amanita excelsa) are sometimes misidentified as the panther cap. They can be distinguished by the stem - the panther cap’s is smooth below the stem ring, while the grey spotted amanita’s is scaly. Additionally, A. excelsa has greyish cap spots, while A. pantherina’s are white, stained darker only in the rain, as seen here - most of them have in fact washed off entirely.
I wasn’t at all sure what these were for ages, but after some research I’m fairly certain their Medusa mushrooms - a fairly rare, but becoming more common in the UK, edible.
