Rosy Earthstar

After a brief glimmer of morning sunshine, it was back to the familiar leaden skies, but at least no rain fell. I had a somewhat circuitous drive round the villages to the west of Peterborough, trying to find somewhere to park that wasn't thick with mud, before finnding a space near Southey Wood. There was some beautiful autumn colour in the beech plantations, where I came across my first ever Yellowing Woodwax (see extra), a close relative of the Waxcaps, which is usually found with beech on calcareous soils. 

But the highlight of the trip was finding a single Rosy Earthstar, growing on the soil surrounding an old conifer stump. At first I thought it was the more commonly found Sessile Earthstar, but the distinctly pinkish-hue and the short stalk below the gleba are characteristic features of Rosy Earthstar - another completely new species for me. So far this autumn I've managed to photograph at least six species of earthstar - all within a fifteen mile radius of home.