Blue Roundhead
Blue Roundhead / stropharia caerulea. Pioneer Meadows, Derbyshire. 16/10/19.
My second visit to photograph the Blue Roundheads that I found yesterday.
Sadly they had been discovered by another (or others) who were less appreciative of their beauty. The largest had been trodden to a pulp and most had their caps knocked off ... presumably with the stick left abandoned beside the devastation.
Fortunately, I noticed this specimen amongst the grasses a little further away. It was small, only about 3cms tall and appeared to have been part of a larger co-joined group judging by the dead stem remains attached to it.
It was a perfect specimen of a Blue Roundhead in miniature. The domed aquamarine blue cap was very slimy and it's margin was still firmly attached to the stem.
{*When the cap eventually opens, a stem ring will be left where it was joined, but it doesn't last in situ for long.}
But it had to be the perfectly intact white scales on the stem that I loved most about this specimen. They were so fresh and dense that they completely masked the bluish-green stem colour hidden beneath them.
BEST VIEWED LARGE.
Blue Roundhead
Blue Roundhead / stropharia caerulea. Pioneer Meadows, Derbyshire. 16/10/19.
My second visit to photograph the Blue Roundheads that I found yesterday.
Sadly they had been discovered by another (or others) who were less appreciative of their beauty. The largest had been trodden to a pulp and most had their caps knocked off ... presumably with the stick left abandoned beside the devastation.
Fortunately, I noticed this specimen amongst the grasses a little further away. It was small, only about 3cms tall and appeared to have been part of a larger co-joined group judging by the dead stem remains attached to it.
It was a perfect specimen of a Blue Roundhead in miniature. The domed aquamarine blue cap was very slimy and it's margin was still firmly attached to the stem.
{*When the cap eventually opens, a stem ring will be left where it was joined, but it doesn't last in situ for long.}
But it had to be the perfectly intact white scales on the stem that I loved most about this specimen. They were so fresh and dense that they completely masked the bluish-green stem colour hidden beneath them.
BEST VIEWED LARGE.