How wonderful is this??
And here are three even tinier ones next to another big one.
I think this is just amazing.
With the naked eye, they just looked like tiny blobs. it blew my mind to see them. I can't seem to find anything about mushrooms this small. Well, there's the twig parachute - but it's meant to be found on head high twigs and from June to November.
I sent the photo to fellow Volunteer Officer Garry and he identified it as a bark bonnet. A smart and fun guy, geddit???
I also found several wood ear mushrooms. It's been dry and they were hard and crispy. But by the time they'd been in a plastic bag for a few hours with some other things they had absorbed moisture and were malleable.
They are apparently good to eat because they soak up flavours.
I didn't expect to see much but was stunned by the beauty of the underside. It seems to be hairy.
So incredible to see all the rich variety and texture at a level smaller than we usually see. I am so grateful to Ian Wilson for lending me this microscope!
Interesting about the wee bark bonnets. So they're common but so small we don't tend to notice them. Their world is at a different scale :-) And that wood ear mushroom is well named!!!