It’s November so it would be extremely rude not to go and look for interesting urban fungi, at least once. I’m a beginner when it comes to identifying fungi species, but I’m hoping to learn more by working on the principle of ‘start with the local’. And I’m fantastically lucky to live in a house which looks out over Sydenham Hill and Dulwich Wood in South London. So when my friend, and London Wildlife Trust project officer, Chantelle advertised a fungi walk in these woods, I immediately signed up.

Zak is leading the walk, and it’s sunny when we assemble by the gate into the wood. He’s a good walk leader, brimming with enthusiasm and impressively knowledgeable, but modest enough to say what he doesn’t know. I chat to a Venezuelan couple who tell me they don’t think there are many fungi species in their home country because it isn’t humid enough. [After the walk I look this up and see that there are 3,900 species of fungi recorded from Venezuela, but it’s like to be likely higher as there has been limted recording.]

It was raining last night and so we’re hopeful that, although it’s quite late in the fungi season, we’ll still find some interesting things. And we do, as you can see below.

And it wasn’t just fungi… We found some slime-moulds too which are in the Protozoa rather than the Fungi kingdom.