Rhodocollybia butyracea, Watch Wood, Nottinghamshire

Rhodocollybia butyracea (butter cap mushroom)

Watch Wood, North of Nottingham, was new territory for me.  A mixed wood, acid soil and some conifers. Very quiet, and we saw no other person.  I found Collybia. butyracea towards the end of the walk.  Its common name is Buttery Collybia and is part of the Marasmiaceae family.  This little fungus is usually found towards the end of the year in sheltered woods.  It is very variable in its characteristics and I had to ask Howard Williams (Retired Recorder) for Notts Fungi group for an opinion.  

On drying the cap can have many hues of colour, the size can be variable too.  The darker centre of the cap is seen on the photograph (see www.fungiworld.co.uk).  It has white close gills which are cartilagenous.
I have a little token from that wood.  Near to the Collybia butyracea lay an abandoned old shovel on the ground!  It was big and heavy so my walking companion offered to carry it back to the car.  Useful for shovelling snow in the next severe winter me thought!

Also during December I came across a beautiful brown Oyster mushroom.  It was at its prime and the sun shine was glowing through the gills so I decided to capture it.  Pleurotus ostreatus can vary in colour from grey, deep blue to brown.  This was my first sighting of a brown one.

Photographs can now be seen at www.fungiworld.co.uk. Browse 5.