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Monday 16 March 2015

Stropharia caerulea (Blue Roundhead)

Stropharia caerulea (Blue Roundhead)

Visited one of my local haunts University Park Nottingham.  Always a pleasure to visit on a Sunday morning. The students still being in bed and most other visitors walk around the lake so I can usually roam around undisturbed.

The Blue Roundhead is an interesting fungus to see and photograph.  The cap being between 3-8 cm across.
The most interesting feature is the umbo which is bluish-green to yellow-green. Slimy texture.  The coloured umbo soon changes to a pale straw colour with only a hint of green.  I came across this solitary fungus at the 'hint of green' stage.  A little difficult to capture in a photograph but the colour can still be seen. Despite what you might think, it does not have a distinctive smell.
Its habitat is in grass/leaf litter - late Summer to Autumn.  I found it during December 2014.  It is not common and was my first sighting.  Thanks to RR for confirming the identification from the photograph.

A cold day and it was nice to take refuge in my VW T25 for hot soup and flask of tea.

Below is a photograph showing the 'hint of green' on the cap umbo.
More photographs can be seen on Browse 5 at www.fungiworld.co.uk