Persistent Waxcap

After a very rainy morning, the weather was perfect for the Peterborough Local Group of BCNWT autumn walk round Stonepit Close which I was leading.

We saw a good range of fungi, about twenty-five of which I named (although a few are very tentative - and quite a few will remain anonymous!). Some were definitely past their best, but others were just emerging. We found four species of waxcap, the rarest of which was Limestone Waxcap, but today I've chosen to feature the rather slimy Persistent Waxcap.

Other highlights of the day included a profusion of soft lilac-grey Pearly Webcap, a colony of Toad's Ear and a small number of Mousepee Pinkgill, a very local species of unimproved grassland with a turquoise stem and which supposedly smells of caged mice, though none of us got down on the very wet ground to check it out!

The Highland Cattle were somewhat bemused by our antics, but were very docile, even though one had to be encouraged to move along a very narrow path that she was blocking. There were also plenty of Common Darter dragonflies on the wing, laying eggs in the shallow pool which had re-appeared after the recent rain.