Scarlet elf cups are very distinctive fungi, shaped like small cups with a bright red interior and a pale white or yellowish exterior.
They grow on dead wood from many species of deciduous trees.
Supposedly fairly common in winter and early spring, but often hidden in the vegetable litter under trees, or even underground.
These were growing on a pile of fallen branches a short distance from the Ranger Station in the Smestow Valley LNR.
View looking up the towpath towards Wightwick Lock last month.
Velvet shanks are one of the most colourful of the common fungi which grow even in the depths of winter.
They are found on tree trunks: often, as here, on dead or dying trees.
The tree these supporting these was at the end of the platform of the old Tettenhall railway station – now the Smestow Valley Nature Reserve Ranger Station.
Erratic overlooking the Dell at East Park, showing more clearly now the roses have been pruned.
Heathers seem to be a popular plant in the gardens I’m passing at the moment.
Every variation in colour from white to deep purple.
Sometimes both, planted close together.
Hawthorn bush at the edgeof the canal, with a snow-covered Dell Field behind.
