A good year for funghi

This year I have been surprised at the wide variety of funghi flourishing in the garden.

I suppose it must be something to do with the damp weather and the relatively mild temperatures that we are having at present.

Here are two quite spectacular examples that I photographed under the ash tree.

On the subject of ash trees, I was alarmed to read recently about 'ash die back', a fungal disease that has devastated ash trees on the continent.  A nursery in Britain was found to have imported some infected trees, but the Government's Food and Environmental Research Agency moved swiftly to quarentine these and believe that this batch does not pose a danger to British trees.  There is the possibility however that other imported diseased trees have not been spotted.

Symptoms of the disease include black spots on the bark that turn into cankers, and branches turning black before they drop off.   Ashes tend to shed branches fairly regularly so it should be possible to keep an eye out for the problem.   However at present it seems there is no cause for immediate alarm, but it is to be hoped that the disease does not manage to take a hold here.

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