A difficult fungi season so far. The weather had been cold and dry, rather than warm and moist so trying to find new photographic opportunities had been rather difficult.
Went to visit one of my local haunts the University Park, Nottingham (December 2014), where I usually find something of interest. It did not disappoint. A small cluster of fungi caught my eye in grass near stumps of trees. The characteristics reminded me of something I'd seen in Scotland called Collybia confluens. Though confluens has a hollow stem and is flesh coloured or grey. This one had a lovely ruddy-dark red-brown cap. The whole stem being grooved and twisted. Because I had found it at maturity the gills looked quite spectacular - being grey with olive tinges. I had to ask for help to identify this one so thank you to RR for his thoughts.
The general characteristics of Collybia are:
known as Toughshanks. Have tough fibrous and flexible stems with no ring. Some have strong smells.
The gills are crowded.
More pictures can be see at fungiworld.co.uk Browse 5.
As ever, first rate photography :-)
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