Roscadghill Parc Wildlife - Fungi

(42 species currently featured)

Mushrooms and toadstools are something most people will be familiar with, scientifically they are placed within the basidiomycota. The group largely consists of cap forming fungi that can be found on lawns, or on and around trees. What we see is the fruiting body of the fungus, the part which enables it to produce spores and reproduce. For the best part of the year fungi survive as microscopic thread-like mycelium. The group also includes polypores, bracket forming fungi and leaf diseases such as rusts. There are many species of rust and individual species may only infect specific plant types, they also occur throughout the year.

Mushrooms and Toadstools

Brain, Tripe and Jelly Tooth Fungi

Rusts and Smuts

Ascomycota are a hugely diverse group of fungi. They have fruiting bodies can form cups, discs and saddles although some may only be seen as a powder-like substance, as with Powdery Mildews.

Cups, Jellydics, Eyelashes and Saddles and other Ascomycota

Oomycota are another fungal group and include Water Moulds, Downy Mildews and Egg Fungi.

Water Moulds, Downy mildews and other Egg Fungi

Lichens are commonly found on the sides of buildings, on un-washed cars, encrusting stones in walls, or adorning twigs, branches and trunks of trees, they are not true fungi but are a mixture of both algae and fungi living together symbiotically for mutual benefit.

Lichens

Slime Moulds are included here only because they resemble fungi but are completely unrelated to them; they are often found under rotting timber or on lawns, moss and leaf litter.

Slime Moulds (Myxomycetes and Ceratiomyxomycetes)

Fungi to identify

A greater selection of images of fungi can be found at APHOTOFUNGI. A web-based educational photographic resource dedicated to the identification of fungi found across South-west England by David Fenwick.