Autumn in the park
Autumn is the time when fungi start to appear, many with weird shapes and wonderful colours. Croxteth is a brilliant place to find all kinds of fungi as we have lots of woodland where leaves and fallen branches from trees have been left to decay naturally, creating a wonderful place for the fungi to grow.
For the most part of the year, fungi grow as almost invisible thread like structures throughout the living or dead, decaying wood and vegetation on which they live. The familiar 'mushrooms' and 'toadstools' are the 'fruiting bodies' that produce millions upon millions of spores (equivalent to plant flowers producing seed).
Fungi are really useful organisms, helping to break-down dead organic material (plant and animal in origin) which 'unlocks' nutrients back into soil where plants can use them to help growth.
This picture is of a Honey fungus Armillaria mellea, which is also called the Bootlace fungus as it can spread using black structures which look a lilttle like boot laces. They often grow behind the bark of dead, decaying trees when Honey fungus is present, although they can grown and spread through the ground too.
The full size picture shows more detail of the Honey fungus, with gills under the cap and a ring round the stem clearly visible.
There is no scientific difference between a mushroom and a toadstool - generally edible fungi tend to be called 'mushrooms', and inedible or poisonous ones tend to be called 'toadstools'. Some fungi can be extremely poisonous, even fatal in some cases, so never pick and eat fungi unless you have positively identified what you are picking, preferably with the identification confirmed by an expert.
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