13th June 2010

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Fells Fungi Fun

Today the rain managed to hold off and allowed for a beautiful hike in the Middlesex Fells. (Check it out.) A friend and I went and started off near the Botume House and then just followed the fire roads and some of the trails so we ended up walking by Spot Pond and then over along another smaller pond. For that part we followed the blue Cross-Fells trail for a ways, which had some fun ups and downs.

In the smaller pond there were lots of lilly pads, many of which are in flower right now. Definitely worth checking out if you live nearby.

However, in addition to flowers we ran across many fungi! There were little orange jelly fungi, small orange cup fungi, little brown mushrooms coming out of logs. some pinky Russula looking things, and this little fella near a bridge we crossed.

It was hidden amongst some leafy liverworts and mosses there. However the most exciting find of the day just might be some excellent white slime mold plasmodia! Those myxomycetes were getting ready to finish turning into fruitbodies, but they still had some plasmodial trails. Very fun to see. If I had time to go back in a couple days, and if the weather stays rain free, they would be fun to collect and identify.

So nature and fungi are out and ready to be discovered. Throw on your hiking boots, grab your hand lens and go have some fun! I sure did!

Tags slime moldmyxomycetesfungi