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Weird Weather but...

While woodland fungi have been hard to find in many parts of Britain and Ireland, the strange summer and autumn weather have favoured species that are rarely seen. In grasslands, rare waxcaps as well as pinkgills (Entoloma species) are providing added interest.

Thank you...

...to the kind donors who help us to fund keeping First Nature freely online without intrusive pop-up advertising. Pat and Sue

Picture Gallery Guide to Identifying Fungi

Try our online ID Guide to Fungi. It covers 26 major genera/groupings and nearly 1000 of the most beautiful, weird and wonderful mushrooms, toadstools and other kinds of fungi most commonly found in woodland and grassland habitats in Britain and Europe.

The pictures link to detailed, illustrated identification pages about each species.

New: Anarchic Anthology

Anarchic Anthology by Pat O'Reilly, paperback and kindle ebook versions via Amazon.

This collection of 28 short stories by Pat O'Reilly is now available in Paperback format and in Kindle ebook format from Amazon in the UK and worldwide.

As with all First Nature books, proceeds from the sale of Anarchic Anthology go towards funding the costs of keeping the First Nature website online.

See the Our Books section for full details...

Microscopy for Amateur Mycologists

It's amazing how much more you can learn about fungi if you have access to a microscope. Our no-jargon Online Guide to Mushroom Microscopy has all the essential information about choosing and using a compound microscope, selecting chemical stains, preparing slides etc to help you get started.

There are also examples of the microscopic 'characters' cited in identification keys. More details...

Winter Wildflowers

From November through to March, waysides and disturbed land are often brightened by the mauve (occasionally white) flowers of Winter Heliotrope, a member of the daisy family (Asteraceae) that many insects rely on during the cold winter weather.

Blue is not a colour normally associated with mushrooms, but there are a few striking blue species. Pictured here is one that makes itself obvious in another way too: the Aniseed Funnel Clitocybe odora can be found by 'following your nose'! See our Sortable Fungi Index for pictures and identification details for more than 770 fascinating fungi species.

Note on terminology

We use the term wildflowers where some people still write wild flowers as two words; however, whether you prefer wildflowers or wild flowers we are sure you will find many flower species of interest in our wildflower pages. Similarly with fungi: some people call all edible fungi mushrooms, using the term toadstools to denote inedible of poisonous fungi. Others reserve the term mushroom for Agaricus species such as field mushrooms. We use the term mushroom to describe any cap-and-stem fungi, whereas brackets, crusts, puffballs and other non-mushroom-shaped types of fungi are referred to simply as fungi. To many people, wildlife means animals such as birds, mammals and insects. Are wildflowers (or wild flowers) wildlife? They are living things, and part of Nature; we therefore use wildlife to imply all living creatures, whether animals (including mammals, birds, insects, reptiles, amphibians, fishes etc), plants such as wildflowers, trees, mosses and other 'lower plants' as well as fungi, lichens and slime moulds.