Porcelain

 We spent the afternoon at Haddo house and  came across of this troop of Porcelain fungi Oudemansiella mucida. Like Chinese porcelain these attractive mushrooms are, when mature, white and translucent.

The Porcelain Fungus, is specific to beech wood. It appears in autumn on dead trunks and on fallen branches, and can be present in vast numbers. These were growing on a very large tree that died several years ago. Many more years of feasting lie ahead!

The genus Oudemansiella was named in honour of the Dutch mycologist Cornelius Anton Jan Abraham Oudemans (1825 - 1906) while the specific epithet mucida refers to the layer of transparent mucus that covers the caps of these mushrooms.