Nothing sparks the imagination like fungi foraging

Runnington, Somerset: These miniature masterpieces often have fabulously apt namesGoing mushrooming is a perilous business: they are just so darn difficult to identify. Luckily, I am with my friend Hannah, who's an ecologist, but even she is occasionally stumped. We're on safe ground on the sheep-nibbled grass where the white blobs are easily identifiable as snowy waxcaps (Cuphophyllus virgineus). Their widely spaced gills, stem and cap all seem to be made of the same material, as though they'd been carved out of old church candles.The delicate grey mushroom poking up out of the leaf litter on the forest floor is a different matter. Its three-inch-high stem is a single dark filament on which is balanced a tiny bell-like cap. The fine lines that radiate from centre to edge might have been painted by a Mughal miniaturist's single squirrel-hair brush. Continue reading...