Fungi Friday - ON THE MEADOWS AND UNDER THE PINES IN THE BAY OF MEDULIN

There is a nice, sheltered place in the already sheltered bay of my hometown, Medulin. A large, shallow inlet that looks more like some small lake, not so much like a part of the sea. The meadows and pine groves along that stretch of the coastline are often more calm, warm, and humid than the rest, making them ideal for fungi of all kinds.

Today I spent the morning there, and here, in this post, I'll show you what I saw.

My Fungi - walk started with the small, inconspicuous mushrooms covered with brown needles fallen from the branches above ...

... the Marasmius oreades.

On one of these mushrooms ...

... that, from a certain angle, looked like two mushrooms ...

... I noticed a fly. The Suillia fuscicornis.

I encounter this species regularly in autumn, around various mushrooms. In this shot, you can see some minuscule insect, probably a rove beetle, blurred in the background. I noticed it only later, at home, when I saw the photograph enlarged on the PC screen.

I found the Marasmius oreades mushrooms growing in small groups on the meadow at the edge of the pine grove.

Groups of these mushrooms often form large rings, but not this time.

I encountered them scattered on the meadow in a formation that only vaguely resembled some kind of half ring.

I tried various combinations of camera settings for these photographs. Some are taken with the flash on, others with ambient light only.

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This small, brown, similar-looking mushroom was photographed nearby. I don't know the species.

The mushroom season is at its beginning in this area, this is more like an overture to autumn, so I didn't expect great diversity ...

... but I found quite a few interesting species. Here you can see the Suillus collinitus.

These edible boletes are always found under the pines.

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I like the texture of the pores under the cap ...

... so I took quite a few, maybe slightly unnecessary shots, using different light and camera settings.

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Some time later, on the open meadow further from the pine trees ...

... I found (well, just probably) the Russula Vesca mushrooms. The colors of these mushrooms can vary a lot, so I'm not sure about the exact species. They can be pale like on these photographs, but usually, the colors are considerably more pronounced. The mushroom in the following photograph ...

... has grown interestingly deformed by the obstacles on its way out of the ground.

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Here you can take a look at these Russulas from another angle, and in a different, warmer light. The built-in flash was used for this photograph.

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About ten meters further, I came across another species typical for the open spaces covered with short grass ...

... the Bovista dermoxantha.

These puff mushrooms had passed their early development, when they were white, firm & edible, and entered the decaying part of their existence.

This fruiting body somehow ended up split in half ...

... with the fine powder made of spores, clearly visible.

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After more rambling, I arrived at the big old pine tree, maybe the biggest one in this part of the bay.

Here I stopped to photograph the lovely red berries of the Smilax aspera plant that was climbing along the trunk.

The fruits and flowers were present at the same time, on the same plant ...

... and on one leaf, I found a spider.

Pisaura mirabilis is the name of this species, very common in this area and throughout Europe.

A bit further, but not far from the tree ...

... I found another Suillus collinitus bolete ...

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... and this lovely pair of Coprinellus micaceus ink caps.

Very soon a butterfly landed on the nearby shrub.

Vanessa atalanta butterflies, commonly known as Red admirals can be seen flying around until late in autumn. Sometimes they appear even in winter if the weather is slightly warmer than usual. I took a couple of shots before the admiral flew away, and then ...

... I moved my focus to another mushroom.

The Psathyrella candolleana.

This mushroom is edible but is reported to be not particularly tasty and of poor value and consistency. Not much to chew here. I never tried it. When I looked back at the shrub where I photographed the Red admiral ...

... the butterfly landed on the same twig. After taking this photograph ...

... I walked to the larger group of Coprinellus micaceus mushrooms. Some were completely developed, their caps were spread like little umbrellas, which means that will decay pretty soon. These fruiting bodies don't last long.

I found also some young and fresh ones in the group. Their umbrellas were closed.

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Here I photographed the same group of mushrooms in three, slightly different ways. Version 1 was done with high shutter speed and the flash on. For version 2 I used only the ambient light and a much slower shutter speed. Version 3 is a combination of 1 and 2, flash was on but the shutter speed was pretty low. The aperture was always the same, minimal, to get a large depth of field with all the intricate details sharp in the picture.

Here you can see Coprinellus micaceus fruiting bodies at different developmental stages.

On the nearby vegetation, I photographed another Red admiral and then continued walking along the narrow path that leads to the sea.

Along the way, I found another small mushroom.

I don't know what species is this. It has similarities with parasol mushrooms but is very small ... and actually, different. Maybe is somehow related, maybe not. I continued walking, and soon ...

... I reached the large open meadow covered with juicy green grass ...

... and occasional flowers.

An attractive excursion place with the archaeological remains where once stood a large Roman villa near the sea. Some blackberries are still unripe and red and can be used as a very cool foreground on landscape shots like this.

These elegant small mushrooms, I don't know the species, were photographed in the shade under the shrubs. About 50 meters further, in the middle of the meadow ...

... I came across the European mantis (Mantis religiosa).I was pleasantly surprised by the nice variety of insects on this autumn day.

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On the way back to the car, while walking under the pines, I encountered yet another Suillus collinitus ...

... this Russula vinosa ...

... and then ...

... some more Suillus collinitus. Mushrooms on this shot are pretty decayed, covered with the parasitic Hypomyces chrysospermus fungus.

On the stem of this bolete ...

... I found another Suillia fuscicornis fly.

Here you can take a better, more up-close look at the same fly.

Here you can see the other side of the same mushroom, the one with the fly on it. This bolete also has traces of the parasitic fungus.

This pretty large Agaricus silvaticus ...

... was the last mushroom I photographed today.

I took a last look at the pines around me, entered the car, and drove home.

As always in these posts on HIVE, the photographs are my work - THE END.