With honeysuckle clambering over hedgerows and wild orchids at the peak of perfection, there is so much to enjoy both in town and countryside. We are seeing more butterflies this year - a welcome bit of good news and yet another reason for taking camera and binoculars on our walks on the wild side. Have fun!
...to the kind donors who help us to fund keeping First Nature freely online without intrusive pop-up advertising. Pat and Sue
...but July to November is the cream of the season, with so many fascinating species to look out for and learn about.
This pictorial guide covers 26 major genera/groupings and nearly 1000 pages about the most beautiful, weird and wonderful mushrooms, toadstools and other kinds of fungi commonly found in woodland and grassland habitats in Britain and Europe. The pictures link to detailed, illustrated identification pages about each species.
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.
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...
From June to October, waysides and roadside verges are brightened by the beautiful orange-lipped yellow flowers of Common Toadflax, a member of the Plantaginaceae family. These snapdragon-like flowers are just exquisite!
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 nearly 800 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.
We are always pleased to receive your suggestions, corrections, pictures and donations to help keep First Nature online and free from intrusive adverts...
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