The recent wet weather had left it very muddy under foot at Northycote Farm Country Park last week. Most of the farm animals seemed happy with the conditions, especially the pigs.
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Turkeytail fungus with algae
Turkeytail is one of the commonest of the bracket fungi. It grows on dead wood, such as this East Park tree stump.
The green colour here is algae growing on the fungus – the upper surface of turkeytail fungi have bands of different colours, which sometimes include green.
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Bandstand base, East Park
The bandstand at East Park has been temporarily removed for some much-needed TLC. While it is gone, the base is left looking forlorn.
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Scarlet elf cups
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.
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Wightwick Lock, snow
View looking up the towpath towards Wightwick Lock last month.
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Velvet shank on a dead tree
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.
