Porcelain fungus

Porcelain Fungus

Porcelain Fungus ©Guy Edwardes/2020VISION

Porcelain fungus

The shiny, translucent porcelain fungus certainly lives up to its name in appearance. It can be seen growing on beech trees and dead wood in summer and autumn.

Enw gwyddonol

Oudemansiella mucida

Pryd i'w gweld

July to October

Species information

Ystadegau

Cap diameter: 2-8cm
Stem height: 5-8cm
Common.

Test

Ynghylch

The porcelain fungus can be found in beechwoods. It appears in late summer until late autumn on dead trunks and fallen branches, and occasionally it grows on dead branches high up in living trees. It is also named the 'Poached egg fungus' or 'Slimy beech cap'. Fungi belong to their own kingdom and get their nutrients and energy from organic matter, rather than photosynthesis like plants. It is often just the fruiting bodies, or 'mushrooms', that are visible to us, arising from an unseen network of tiny filaments called 'hyphae'. These fruiting bodies produce spores for reproduction, although fungi can also reproduce asexually by fragmentation.

Sut i'w hadnabod

The caps of the porcelain fungus are white, translucent and very shiny; they start off convex, flattening out with age. The gills are white, broadly spaced and attached to the stem.

Dosbarthiad

Widespread.

Roeddech chi yn gwybod?

The porcelain fungus is edible after washing and when the skin is removed.