Wolves Wild

A late-season thistle flower in the verge of a lane near Worfield last month. A spider has woven its web resting on the spikes surrounding the flower.

The bright autumn colours of a Virginia creeper. This one was clinging to a conifer in the garden of a house near to the Upper Green, Tettenhall.

Pictures are of the fungus showing its development one week after the photos here.

A small spider was crawling along the rim of this flower.

A single waterlily flower still blooming in the Bantock Park pond a month ago, with the autumn leaf-fall beginning to accumulate on the lily pads.

Fairiesbonnets are tiny inkcap mushrooms which grow in clusters on wood. These were just above ground level on one of the trees along Tettenhall Road.

Amethyst deceivers are small mushrooms which grow in association with coniferous trees.

When they first emerge, they are brightly coloured with the hue of amethysts (lavenderish semi-precious stones). The deception which their name indicates includes their fading with age, adding to the difficulty in identifying them.

These had only just begun to fade, even though they had been around long enough for something to have eaten almost half the cap of the largest one.

Shaggy inkcaps growing by the side of a pavement. They had avoided being kicked over (so far) because they were almost hidden by the autumn leaf-fall.

Yellow spindle coral fungus grows as bunches of yellow fingers, less than a centimetre high.

Despite its strong colour, it is sometimes hard to spot, even in short grass.

Spider’s web using the top of an umbellifer as the scaffolding. The tiny drops of water from the early morning dew help to make the strands of the web stand out.

Glistening inkcaps are small mushrooms which grow in troops on underground rotting wood, such as the roots of former trees.

The centres of the caps of freshly emerged ones have a rich tan colour, fading towards grey at the rim of the cap. As the mushrooms age, the cap centres shift colour progressively to approach the tone of the rim.

A lasting patch may have clumps of mushrooms of different ages.

These were growing in a spot by a footpath where there are fresh eruptions of glsitening inkcaps several times a year.

Earthworm hurrying along a canal towpath.

The orangish section, roughly one third of the body length behind the head, is the clitellum. It holds the worm’s eggs. This worm may have been in such a hurry to find a good spot for its eggs.