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David

Cellar cups spreading out

Cellar cup fungus

One of the habitats were this fungus is found is in cellars, especially if damp. But these were growing on carpeting which a gardener was using on top of a compost heap.

Cellar cup fungus

These had also spread so that they were losing their cup shape, unlike a previous set of pictures of this fungus.

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David

Appaloosa pony

Appaloosa pony

Pony with Appaloosa-style (or leopard pattern) coat happily grazing. A horse with a similar coat is pictured here.

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David

Flooded alder carr

Flooded alder carr, Packhorse Bridge LNR

Carr is woodland on damp or marshy ground (and thus prone to flooding) where alders and willows are the dominant trees.

Here the carr is in the Packhorse Bridge Nature Reserve, by the river Blythe at Hampton in Arden.

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David

Frosty bramble leaves, Barley Field

Frosty bramble leaves, Barley Field

Another picture of early-morning frost, on the leaves of a bramble.

The leaf on the left has been in the sun for longest: its frost has almost all melted.

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David

Reaching upwards, hollyhock stem

Reaching upwards, hollyhock stem

The remains of one of last year’s hollyhocks lit by gentle early-morning sunlight.

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David

Earth star with lid

Earth star with lid

Earth star fungus, probably Geastrum coronatum, with what appears to be a lid or protective cover detaching itself from the sporocarp, the spherical structure containing the spore-creating gleba.

I’ve never seen anything like it before, nor any reference to anything similar in my collection of Field Guilds or online – possibly because I haven’t looked hard enough.

Earth star with lid

Seen again five days later. The “lid” was raised higher, but still not separated from the rest.