Thursday 2 October 2008

Into the woods

I went out in a small sunny spell on my usual circuit today to look for puff balls and on a whim took a detour into the wood. I had no basket nor any camera so it was inevitable I should find ceps, the biggest phallic fungus I've ever seen and two slugs having sex...

These are the ceps.
Red cracking bolete

If I'd had an apron I'd have gathered them in that, but I didn't and felt a bit silly (although who was there to see me) with my fleece turned up to make a kangaroo pouch. These aren't particularly valuable ceps. The Red Cracking bolete is edible but has a poor texture and weak flavour. They were, however, in pretty good condition and hardly attacked by maggots at all so I've cleaned them up and set them to dry. They might add a touch of the forestière to some risotto in the winter.

The phallic fungus was already past its best but the flies were having a whale of a time. Slugs having sex I can show you, since the dirty beasts have been at it for a month or two now.

YinYangSlugs

If you click on the picture it will take you to Paul's photostream on flickr with lots of information about what's going on. If you're interested of course!

2 comments:

La Bête said...

I bet slugs don't bother with love, do they? They just slime all over each other and make more disgusting slugs. Good for them. They've got the right idea.

Catofstripes said...

Call me an old romantic, Bête, but I'd really like to think there's a touch of affection, even in a slug's viscous embrace. You'd need to love someone very much to share that much slime with them...

but the scientist in me thinks you are probably right. Pure lust for procreation. I hope they enjoy it.