╔══ Sightings from 11 October 202614 sightings
speciesAmanita muscaria
locationWamberg
habitatBirch and coniferous forest
edibilityPsychoactive
├─ Key Features
- │ ▸ Bright red (occ. orange/yellow) cap with white spots
- │ ▸ White gills and stem
- │ ▸ Ring on stem
- │ ▸ Bulbous base
speciesAmanita muscaria
locationWamberg
habitatBirch and coniferous forest
edibilityPsychoactive
├─ Key Features
- │ ▸ Bright red (occ. orange/yellow) cap with white spots
- │ ▸ White gills and stem
- │ ▸ Ring on stem
- │ ▸ Bulbous base
speciesCantharellus cibarius
locationWamberg
habitatMycorrhizal with beech, birch, spruce and pine
edibilityExcellent edible mushroom
├─ Key Features
- │ ▸ Golden-yellow, funnel-shaped cap with a wavy, irregular margin
- │ ▸ Blunt, forked ridges (no true gills) running down the stem
- │ ▸ Pale yellow to whitish, firm flesh
- │ ▸ Pleasant fruity smell of apricots
└─ One of the most sought-after wild mushrooms in Europe; a great choice for drying.
speciesCoprinus comatus
locationWamberg
habitatDisturbed ground: roadsides, paths, meadows, parks
edibilityEdible when young, before the gills blacken
├─ Key Features
- │ ▸ Tall cylindrical white cap covered in shaggy, upturned scales
- │ ▸ White, free gills that turn black and liquefy from the margin once mature
- │ ▸ Hollow white stem with a loose, movable ring
- │ ▸ Cap dissolves into black, spore-laden 'ink' shortly after sporulation
└─ One of the most distinctive mushrooms of late summer; the blackening process (deliquescence) happens within hours, so pick young specimens while the cap is still firm and white.
speciesCortinarius violaceus
locationWamberg approach
habitatMycorrhizal with birch, oak, beech and spruce in old deciduous and coniferous forest, usually on acidic soil, late summer to autumn
edibilityEdible at best mediocre — some guides call it inedible and report a bitter aftertaste when cooked
├─ Key Features
- │ ▸ Deep violet to blue-black cap up to 15 cm across, dry and covered in fine downy scales — neither sticky nor slimy
- │ ▸ Violet flesh throughout, darker just below the cap skin and in the stem
- │ ▸ Dark violet gills, broadly attached, turning purplish-brown with age
- │ ▸ Stem the same violet colour, woolly-fibrillose, often with a swollen base and a web-like veil that soon vanishes
- │ ▸ Mild taste and a faint smell reminiscent of cedar wood
└─ The type species of the webcaps, and one of the few violet mushrooms that is neither sticky nor slimy. Widespread but nowhere common in Europe and listed as endangered in the British Isles; it is prized for its beauty rather than its flavour, and the number of similarly coloured webcaps makes it a risky species to collect for the table.
speciesCortinarius violaceus
locationWamberg approach
habitatMycorrhizal with birch, oak, beech and spruce in old deciduous and coniferous forest, usually on acidic soil, late summer to autumn
edibilityEdible at best mediocre — some guides call it inedible and report a bitter aftertaste when cooked
├─ Key Features
- │ ▸ Deep violet to blue-black cap up to 15 cm across, dry and covered in fine downy scales — neither sticky nor slimy
- │ ▸ Violet flesh throughout, darker just below the cap skin and in the stem
- │ ▸ Dark violet gills, broadly attached, turning purplish-brown with age
- │ ▸ Stem the same violet colour, woolly-fibrillose, often with a swollen base and a web-like veil that soon vanishes
- │ ▸ Mild taste and a faint smell reminiscent of cedar wood
└─ The type species of the webcaps, and one of the few violet mushrooms that is neither sticky nor slimy. Widespread but nowhere common in Europe and listed as endangered in the British Isles; it is prized for its beauty rather than its flavour, and the number of similarly coloured webcaps makes it a risky species to collect for the table.
speciesGanoderma applanatum
locationWamberg
habitatOn stumps and trunks of deciduous trees, especially beech; rarely conifers
edibilityInedible — woody and tough
├─ Key Features
- │ ▸ Large, flat grey-brown bracket with a dull, crusty top surface
- │ ▸ White pore surface that turns brown permanently when scratched
- │ ▸ Concentric growth zones on the upper surface
- │ ▸ Woody, hard, perennial fruit body
└─ Being totally woody, it can last for years. Draw on the fresh white underside with a stick and the picture remains permanently — origin of the name Artist's Bracket.
speciesHericium flagellum
locationWamberg
habitatSaprobe and weak parasite on conifer deadwood, above all silver fir (Abies alba), in cool, humid montane mixed forest; late summer to November
edibilityEdible when young, but rare and legally protected in parts of Europe; best left in place
├─ Key Features
- │ ▸ White, coral-like fruit body of many repeatedly forking branches, up to 30 cm or more across, ageing cream to yellowish
- │ ▸ Long white spines (up to about 20 mm) hanging in tufts from the branch tips, unlike the spines running along the branches of the Ästiger Stachelbart
- │ ▸ Firm, fleshy white flesh with a mild, pleasant smell and taste
- │ ▸ Grows on dead wood of conifers, especially silver fir, on standing and fallen trunks and stumps
└─ Confirmed as a species distinct from Hericium coralloides by sexual incompatibility studies in 1983; strongly tied to silver fir and red-listed as threatened across much of Europe.
speciesHydnum rufescens
locationWamberg approach
habitatMycorrhizal with spruce, pine, beech and oak in coniferous, deciduous and mixed forest, summer to autumn
edibilityEdible — mild and pleasant when young, older caps often slightly bitter
├─ Key Features
- │ ▸ Terracotta to apricot-orange cap, 3–8 cm across — smaller, more regularly shaped and deeper coloured than the Wood Hedgehog (Hydnum repandum)
- │ ▸ Soft spines (teeth) instead of gills under the cap, cream to pale orange and 3–5 mm long
- │ ▸ White to pale ochre stem, centrally attached and firm; flesh white to yellowish
- │ ▸ Pleasant fruity smell and mild taste that turns slightly bitter with age
- │ ▸ Cream-coloured spore print
└─ A smaller, deeper-coloured twin of the Wood Hedgehog, once treated as a variety of it. Both are safe to collect: no mushroom with soft spines under the cap is poisonous. The firm flesh makes this a good keeper and market mushroom — pick young specimens, because older ones often turn bitter.
speciesLepiota clypeolaria
locationWamberg approach
habitatOn leaf litter in deciduous and coniferous woodland, especially under beech and oak
edibilityPoisonous — like many Lepiota species, suspected of causing gastrointestinal poisoning
├─ Key Features
- │ ▸ White cap covered with reddish-brown, woolly scales, denser towards the centre
- │ ▸ Slender stem with a fibrous, woolly zone instead of a firm ring and a shaggy, white-felted base ('fleecy boot')
- │ ▸ White, free gills and white spore print
- │ ▸ Cap conical-bell-shaped at first, then expanding to convex
speciesMacrolepiota procera
locationWamberg
habitatIn meadows, forest edges and clearings on sunny ground
edibilityGood edible when young
├─ Key Features
- │ ▸ Large pale cap with coarse, shaggy brown scales; egg-shaped and brown-scaly when young
- │ ▸ Naked margin without veil remnants
- │ ▸ Snake-skin patterned, slightly club-shaped stem with a thick double ring
- │ ▸ Free, close white gills; flesh white, flushed reddish-brown when cut
speciesPseudohydnum gelatinosum
locationWamberg approach
habitatOn strongly decayed, damp conifer stumps (spruce, pine); rarely on hardwood
edibilityEdible but of no culinary value
├─ Key Features
- │ ▸ Gelatinous, tongue- to fan-shaped fruit body
- │ ▸ Underside covered with soft, hanging teeth (spines)
- │ ▸ Translucent whitish to grey-brown, jelly-firm flesh
- │ ▸ Short lateral stem, sometimes missing entirely
└─ Looks like a jelly fungus but bears soft spines like a hedgehog fungus — hence the name. Edible, though it tastes of almost nothing.
speciesStropharia aeruginosa
locationWamberg approach
habitatSaprotrophic on rotting wood, wood-chip mulch, grassy woodland, roadside verges and parks, spring to autumn
edibilityNot recommended — widely reported as poisonous, though a few European guides list it as edible with a mildly spicy taste; treat as inedible
├─ Key Features
- │ ▸ Vivid blue-green, glutinous cap 2–8 cm across, sprinkled with white veil remnants that sit as flecks near the margin
- │ ▸ The colour fades or washes off with rain and age, turning yellow-ochre — old caps lose the blue-green entirely
- │ ▸ White stem of even thickness with a fragile dark ring; below the ring fine white scales
- │ ▸ Gills white at first, then clay-brown, often with a paler edge; spore print brownish-purple
└─ Told apart from lookalikes by the slimy blue-green cap with white flecks combined with the dark ring on the white stem. Reported poisonous in many guidebooks, while a few European sources call it edible — with the toxic constituents undescribed and the effects unclear, it is not worth collecting. Wood-chip mulch in gardens and parks is its favourite substrate.
speciesXylaria hypoxylon
locationKankerbach
habitatSaprobic on dead and decaying stumps and logs of broadleaves, especially beech; also on buried wood
edibilityInedible — too small and tough to be of any culinary value
├─ Key Features
- │ ▸ Antler- or club-shaped, flattened, often branched fruit bodies like a tiny stag's horn
- │ ▸ Black, carbonaceous surface with powdery whitish-grey tips while young
- │ ▸ The pale tips darken as the sexual fruit bodies mature
- │ ▸ Grows in dense tufts on dead hardwood stumps and logs
└─ One of the most common decomposers of hardwood; the pale 'snuff' on the tips is the asexual conidial stage, which turns to sooty black as the perithecia mature.