🍄Fungi and Foxgloves🌸

plus stories from the South West Coast Path

Coordinating with a Clematis

Hello lovely,

I hope this newsletter for the second half of May finds you well at what is perhaps the end of a busy or restful (or both!) half term break. It’s a week since I was out of bed at 4:30am to catch the first train down to London for the RHS Chelsea Flower show as an ambassador for Grow, along with two young trainees, and I’m still catching up on sleep! The Foxglove and Clematis displays were stunning and I have some photos of these to share with you below.

First, here are some seasonal dates to ground you into June:

• 1 June: Meteorological Summer begins

• 1 June: Pride month begins

• 5 June: World Environment Day

• 6 June: New Strawberry Moon in Gemini 03:37 BST

• 11-13 June: Shavuot (Jewish holiday)

• Sun remains in Gemini until 21 June

• 16 June: Father’s Day (U.K)

• 17 June: June’s Ecoliteracy Community Meet Up (online)

Clematis and Roses, Gloucestershire

🍄Summer Fungi

Back in this edition from May 2023 I shared my first Summer fungi find: Chicken of the Woods. Since then I’ve been back to the same spot in South Wales to see if any more of this delicious edible mushroom was there but sadly the oak tree it was growing on had been cut down. I’ve also visited my regular spot here in Sheffield but none has appeared yet. However, when I was down in Gloucestershire last week I got lucky. I was on a walk with a friend when I spotted my first Chicken of the Woods of 2024 on none other than a Yew Tree! This is the first time I’ve seen this delicious edible mushroom growing on an evergreen tree. This was only a very small specimen with not quite enough to make my favourite recipe - enchiladas, so I left her be. Now I’m keen to visit my local CotW spots in Sheffield to see if this Summer Fungi has caught up with her Southern relatives and sprouted here.

I’ve also seen lots of people posting about Dryads Saddle - another common and easily identifiable Summer Fungi. This got me thinking about the origin of her name with Dryads being female tree nymphs or spirits in Greek mythology who inhabit Oak trees in particular. One of the names for June’s moon is Dyad’s Moon which got me pondering about a possible link, however ‘Dyad’, meaning a set of two elements treated as one; a pair, is more likely to apply to June’s moon due to the popularity of this month for marriages on the Summer Solstice, as well as Gemini season (symbolised by the twins).

To swot up on easily identifiable Summer Fungi take a look at my Summer Fungi ID guide from my June’s plants (plus some fungi!) course. This course begins tomorrow and goes into depth on the folklore and uses of 4 flowering plants and 4 trees plus a live community call on 17 June. I’d love you to join me for a month of plant geekery!

Investment: £85

Chicken of the Woods (Laetiporus sulphureus) growing on Yew

💐Foxgloves and friendships

In other news, and the reason why this edition is a week late, is that I spent 3 special days leading up to the Full Flower Moon hiking 45 miles of the South West Coast Path in North Devon with my dear friend (and esteemed author) Ash. This has been an almost-9 year love affair between me and the path and has evolved into an essential annual event both for my mental health and goal of walking all 630 miles of this path by 2028. The stretch I walked last week means that