Fungi

 

A little reminder of the potential seasonal bounty to come, a young Beefsteak fungus (Fistulina hepatica) errupts from a ancient beech trunk. Soon throughout the stands and amongst the woodland fringes the fungi realm will reign. It's a fascinating world, and one we've yet to fully understand, though we know enough to know they're essential to the whole damn thing. Plenty are edible too, several classified as edible good, though just as many are not, and if you're not 110% certain, leave well alone, some mushrooms are fatal. And as for Beefsteak fungus? Well, it's an edible, and I've eaten it on a couple of occassions in the past and will pass on eating it again in the future; bitter, rubbery, weird, would all be appropriate adjectives to employ. It looks a wrongun too.