Wildlife Matters

with Dorothy Glen

With Halloween around the corner, you need look no further than the natural world for all the otherworldly, ghoulish spectacles you need. From the ghastly to the bizarre, British fungi provides plenty of opportunity for spook-seekers to get their fix, plus they’re just downright fascinating. Here are some grim and grisly examples.

Looking a little like its name, yellow brain is a jelly fungus. Also known as ‘witches’ butter’, legend has it that if you discover yellow brain on your door or gate it means you have been cursed by a witch. To remove the spell you must pierce the fungus with pins until it goes away.

More positively, though, it is of interest to modern medicine as it produces compounds which show anti-inflammatory and anti-allergic properties. So who knows, maybe one day you’ll be spreading witches’ butter on your toast.

Related to the more common and rather infamous stinkhorn fungus (I’ll let you google that one!), devil’s fingers, also known as octopus fungus, unfurl tentacle-like arms from a slimy ‘egg’. Rich red and fleshy, they smell of rotting meat to attract flies. Truly revolting.

While exploring the woods late on a dark night, as you do, you may come across a ghostly green glow. The jack-o-lantern fungus, named because it is bright pumpkin-orange, boasts slight bioluminescence at night. Don’t be too drawn to this fungus though, it’s rather poisonous.

If you’re looking for an addition to your evening meal, vampire’s bane would be a more sensible choice. So named because it smells and tastes of garlic, this small mushroom can be used in cooking, and has the added benefit of keeping garlicaverse vampires at bay.

Another one to look out for on your woodland stroll, and perhaps in the occasional overgrown graveyard, dead man’s fingers reach from the ground as though someone is trying to push through from the underworld. To add to the creepiness, they are grey with pale coloured tips (reminiscent of fingernails) when young, before becoming blackened and swollen. Yuck.

Also named Judas’s ear. Appearing mostly on elder, the tree that Judas is said to have hanged himself on, the ‘ears’ growing from the wood are said to represent his tortured soul. Whether you’re into Halloween or not, do enjoy spotting monstrous mushrooms and terrible toadstools oozing into existence this October. Just remember to be careful and do your research before picking and/or consuming them, as some can be poisonous. The Local Answer To advertise call 01242 510500 Page 31