Fungus season

Thought we saw a bit of litter in the grass just inside the main entrance to Filnore Woods.  Can you see it just in the right foreground.

Turned out to be a slightly damaged Giant Puffball (Calvatia gigantea).  

We get them growing in this location nearly every year.  The stem breaks off allowing the puffball to roll around shedding its trillions (really) of spores.

We also found this other large Parasol mushroom (Macrolepiota procera) with an attractive dark pattern on the top of the cap.

  

Paxillus involutus (below) is usually associated with birch trees and is poisonous, though somebody - probably slugs - has been nibbling at the cap of this one.

The photo below is a bit blurry for identification but could be Laccaria laccata which has the common name of 'The Deceiver',  perhaps because it is very variable and therefore hard to be sure of.

Thanks to Simon Harding, our fungus man, for the identifications.  

Lots more to come as the fungus fruiting season progresses.