There is a patch of the most peculiar fungus that has appeared around the base of a Holm Oak that stands in the left hand small copse of trees between the first and second meadows

There are 50 to 60 fruiting bodies that are so convoluted and distorted that it is quite difficult to work out whats going on with them

An internet search on ‘weird looking fungus uk’ threw up many really spectacular but wacky looking fungi that can be found in Britain, such that you can’t understand why more fuss is not made of them. I have been on several fungal forays in previous autumns and at the time feel like I’ve built up a bit of a knowledge bank but sadly it is all forgotten by the time the next autumn comes and this unsustainability of it all is a problem for me and my memory. However, I was pleased to see that the internet search did have photos of these boys and so discovered that these are White Saddles, Helvella crispa. These are common, although I’ve certainly never seen anything like them before, inedible and are often found associated with deciduous trees. Therefore it is probably not the evergreen Holm Oak that they are associated with in our copse but the much smaller Whitebeam growing alongside.

One things for sure, these are fungi that I won’t have forgotten about by the time next autumn comes along.