Magpie ink cap. Coprinus picaceus.
Cap inc pioden (my translation, not found in a book).
Mae ffwng hwn yn ddiddorol.
Mae’n cynnwys cemegyn sydd yn gwneud popl yn sal os ein fwyta gyda alcohol.
interesting fungus.
it contains a chemical which makes people feel ill if they eat it with alcohol.
Please excuse any bad welsh.
In the past it was noticed that if people ate these all seemed well, but those that included
alcohol in the meal did not feel at all good. The chemical was identified and is now used
to dissuade people from drinking alcohol. (apparently the chemical is acetaldehyde, another
good reason to not eat wild fungi).
It’s not a common species but pops up now and again.
Cheers J.P.
Derwen (Oak left), Bedwen arian (silver birch right).
Faint o heulwen, digon i weld gwas y neidr / gweision y neidr (dragonfly / dragonflies).
Unfortunately this photo is not good enough for ID. The trick if anyone is interested, is to note where they like to sit, then ready your camera and wait, it worked here as the stump was obviously in a favored position, trouble was the amount of light reflecting off the stump over saturated the camera chip, i’m well aware that camera likes shade but if i had tried to shade the stump the insect would have gone elsewhere, sometimes we just have to accept things as they are.
Now when i can write/say all that in welsh i will have made real progress.
Cheers J.P.
Many thanks Iestyn, mae’n diddorol iawn.
There is much to be found outside if only we had time to search everywhere.
Fungi on sphagnum where much more reported a hundred years ago when sphagnum was collected for medical use, today there are few people in these environments.
At the moment i’m not finding the possibly unusual fungi i am looking for, the weather has been mostly dry for a long time and fungi seem sparse and late.
Today i tried to make a video of the
Cap llaeth gwlanog - cymraeg.
woolly milk cap - saesneg. Lactarius tomentosus - Latin.
This image shows nicely the woolly part of its name, but when the gills are damaged they should exude drops of what look like milk, but they seem to dry for this to happen at the moment, just some tiny drops in center of image.
Is that a damselfly, or a dragonfly? I’m not real clear on the differences, especially when I am looking at a photo instead of in the wild… (Nice shot though, John!)
Field blewit.- saesneg. Lepista personata - Latin
Coes las y cae (my translation).
Note as per top image, the slightest rain can leave the cap looking a little greasy.
colour of stem is the give away for ID and note gills not attached to stem.
Suddenly a lot about on grassy heath land (rostir).
This maybe interesting for people to look out for, the books always say most common on oak (derwen) but i seem to find it more often on birch (bedw), this was collected much in times gone by for use in Maquetry ( couloured inlay of wood products).
hen bren - old wood.
laswyrdd - bluegreen.
I should add that evolution means things have to evolve to survive and there is evidence this species is starting to appear on old willow, i have found it once once on willow and know others have been reported elsewhere in the country.
Today i have been preparing a little experiment in that i would like to capture some images of native birds and knowing of an old oak that blew over a couple of years ago i have started a little feeding spot to see what wild birds may appear there over the winter. Of course an old oak has moss and some plants starting to grow on it, plenty of insects and fungi, and today these tiny plasmodial slime moulds.
And I was kicking myself on Saturday when I was walking near Castell Cilgerran and saw a great swathe of small orange toadstools growing out of a rotting log which was covered in bright green moss as well, but I didn’t have my camera with me. I’m half inclined to go back next weekend and see if they are still there.
