A Fungal Smörgåsbord

Shaggy ink caps, Coprinus comatus, have taken over a hillside pasture while a lone sheep looks on. They are edible when young and fresh. Newly sprouted ones resemble the common ink cap, which would make consumers ill for up to three days after a meal. I have read that the shaggy ink cap is safe but have not tested the claim¹“Shaggy Inkcap.” Wild Food UK, wildfooduk.com/mushroom-guide/shaggy-inkcap. Accessed 11 Nov. 2026.²“The Complete Guide to Shaggy Mane Mushrooms.” Grocycle, grocycle.com/shaggy-mane-mushroom/. Accessed 11 Nov. 2026..

The weather favours fungi. The RHS reported the hottest UK summer on record and expects record sightings if rain follows³“Record Mushrooms Predicted This Autumn.” LBC, 2026, www.lbc.co.uk/article/record-mushrooms-predicted-autumn-5HjdjWB_2/. Accessed 11 Nov. 2026.⁴“Record mushroom sightings predicted this autumn.” BBC. 7 October 2026. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c6398n9nxevyo Accessed 11 Nov. 2026. The Met Office puts the chance of a warm, wet autumn at one and a half to two times the usual⁵“El Niño likely to cause wetter and warmer-than-normal autumn.” BBC, 11 September 2026. https://www.bbc.co.uk/weather/articles/cqxv4wj8jxwo Accessed 11 Nov. 2026..

And there are indeed plenty of fungi to examine at the moment — not so many photogenically perfect though. Fly agaric (Amanita muscaria), red with white flecks, partners with tree roots, birch above all, and is poisonous⁶“Fly Agaric.” Woodland Trust, www.woodlandtrust.org.uk/trees-woods-and-wildlife/fungi-and-lichens/fly-agaric. Accessed 11 Nov. 2026.. Clouded funnel (Clitocybe nebularis), pale grey, grows on leaf litter and divides opinion on edibility⁷“Clouded Agaric: Identification, Distribution, Edibility.” Galloway Wild Foods, https://gallowaywildfoods.com/clouded-agaric-identification-distribution-edibility/. Accessed 11 Nov. 2026.⁸“Clouded Judgement: The Clouded Agaric.” Mushroom Diary, Oct. 2009, www.mushroomdiary.co.uk/2009/10/clouded-agaric/. Accessed 11 Nov. 2026.. Golden scalycap (Pholiota adiposa) clusters in a hollow beech trunk, where it feeds both as a decayer and a weak parasite of beech⁹“Pholiota adiposa.” iNaturalist, www.inaturalist.org/guide_taxa/1930077. Accessed 11 Nov. 2026.. The hollow in that beech has been abused as a hearth for a fire, and as its branches overhang a popular footpath, I have heard from the Rangers that the tree will soon need drastic pruning.

The mushrooms are only the visible part — their fruiting bodies. Kew estimates wordwide there are 2 to 3 million fungal species, of which only about 155,000 have formal names¹⁰“How Many Fungus Species Are There?” Plantlife, www.plantlife.org.uk/?p=31126. Accessed 11 Nov. 2026..

• 1
  “Shaggy Inkcap.” Wild Food UK, wildfooduk.com/mushroom-guide/shaggy-inkcap. Accessed 11 Nov. 2026. ↩︎
• 2
  “The Complete Guide to Shaggy Mane Mushrooms.” Grocycle, grocycle.com/shaggy-mane-mushroom/. Accessed 11 Nov. 2026. ↩︎
• 3
  “Record Mushrooms Predicted This Autumn.” LBC, 2026, www.lbc.co.uk/article/record-mushrooms-predicted-autumn-5HjdjWB_2/. Accessed 11 Nov. 2026. ↩︎
• 4
  “Record mushroom sightings predicted this autumn.” BBC. 7 October 2026. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c6398n9nxevyo Accessed 11 Nov. 2026. ↩︎
• 5
  “El Niño likely to cause wetter and warmer-than-normal autumn.” BBC, 11 September 2026. https://www.bbc.co.uk/weather/articles/cqxv4wj8jxwo Accessed 11 Nov. 2026. ↩︎
• 6
  “Fly Agaric.” Woodland Trust, www.woodlandtrust.org.uk/trees-woods-and-wildlife/fungi-and-lichens/fly-agaric. Accessed 11 Nov. 2026. ↩︎
• 7
  “Clouded Agaric: Identification, Distribution, Edibility.” Galloway Wild Foods, https://gallowaywildfoods.com/clouded-agaric-identification-distribution-edibility/. Accessed 11 Nov. 2026. ↩︎
• 8
  “Clouded Judgement: The Clouded Agaric.” Mushroom Diary, Oct. 2009, www.mushroomdiary.co.uk/2009/10/clouded-agaric/. Accessed 11 Nov. 2026. ↩︎
• 9
  “Pholiota adiposa.” iNaturalist, www.inaturalist.org/guide_taxa/1930077. Accessed 11 Nov. 2026. ↩︎
• 10
  “How Many Fungus Species Are There?” Plantlife, www.plantlife.org.uk/?p=31126. Accessed 11 Nov. 2026. ↩︎