Quiet Architects of Decay - Fungi and Slime Mould in Coed-Y-Canddo Wood

The woodland floor, soaked by persistent rain, had once again performed its familiar magic trick — transforming from mud and leaf litter into something far more intriguing. Even on a dull, wet day, Coed-Y-Canddo refuses to disappoint. What appears, at first glance, to be little more than fallen timber and decay is, in reality, a quietly bustling world of recyclers, colonisers, and microscopic specialists.

Turkey Tail brackets traced the contours of ageing wood like delicate topographic maps, their concentric bands glowing softly against the damp bark. Nearby, Birch Polypores emerged from pale trunks with quiet confidence — solid, sculptural, almost architectural. Each fruiting body tells the same story: decay is not destruction, but redistribution. Matter reorganised. Energy repurposed.

Then, inevitably, the woodland’s stranger residents revealed themselves.

Black Bulgar pressed through the timber in glossy, obsidian folds, its tar-like sheen catching what little light filtered through the canopy. It looked improbably alien — less like something grown and more like something deposited. Woodland science fiction, written in fungal form.

And sprawled across a fallen branch, the wonderfully named Dog Vomit Slime Mould, Fuligo septica. Pale, irregular, faintly foamy. A reminder that not everything resembling a fungus actually is one. This amoeboid collective, quietly grazing on the forest’s microbial life, is yet another example of nature’s refusal to obey our tidy categories.

Dead wood is never truly dead.

It breathes with activity. Fallen branches become ecosystems. Beneath every rotting log, unseen chemistry proceeds with relentless precision. 

The woodland, patient and indifferent to weather or observer, continues its ancient work, dismantling, recycling, renewing.

Birch Polypore (Fomitopsis betulina) is a type of bracket fungus that grows exclusively on birch trees. 

Stereum hirsutum, commonly called Hairy Curtain Crust (also nicknamed False Turkey Tail).

Turkey Tail (Trametes versicolor).

Black Bulgar (Bulgaria inquinans). This species loves dead hardwood, especially oak. It’s a saprotroph woodland cleanup crew, digesting fallen timber.

Dog Vomit Slime Mold — Fuligo septica.

Milk-White Tooth Fungus — Irpex lacteus

Scarlet Elf Cup — Sarcoscypha species.

Lichen Platismatia glauca.

**Identifying fungi, slime moulds, and lichens can be complex. The classifications presented here are based on AI-assisted analysis and field guide references, and should be considered informed assessments rather than absolute determinations.