Two weeks ago, on the 14th of January, I drove to Porech, the small city situated on the western coast of Istra, about seventy kilometers north of my hometown. On the way there, I stopped by the side of the road in the area near the long, narrow bay called the bay of Lim or the Lim bay.
In this post, you'll see only the moss, lichens, and fungi I found in two places by the side of the road.
These Bolbitius titubans mushrooms were growing on the pile of rotting plant material collected after the trimming of the grass and shrubs near the road.
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It was early in the morning. The valley was deep in the shade provided by the surrounding hills. It was much colder than I expected. In this photograph, besides the mushrooms in the foreground, you can also see a bit of the scenery and the road that passes by the bay and continues northwards.
Here you can take a look at the sunlit area near the top of the hill.
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Bolbitius titubans is a delicate mushroom that mainly grows on dung or heavily fertilized soil. I don't remember encountering this species before.
I found a few more mushrooms of the same kind in the same area, and I photographed them too, but now, I'd like to show you some other stuff.
Here you can see the lichens from the genus Cladonia of the Cladoniaceae family. I'm not sure about the name of the species. It could be the Cladonia rangiferina. But it could be also one of the many similar species.
Since lichens are composite organisms made of algae or cyanobacteria that live among the filaments of fungi, they aren't completely out of place in a fungi-related community. An interesting, and kinda surprising thing about the Cladonia rangiferina which may or may not be the lichen shown in the post is its common name. Cladonia rangiferina is commonly known as the reindeer lichen. Despite the name, it grows equally successfully in hot and cold habitats, in well-drained open places with and without reindeer.
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I photographed the lichens on the steep stony terrain a couple of kilometers north and uphill from the valley.
From that elevated point, I was able to see a small fragment of the bay.
In many places, the ground in that area is carpeted with soft and juicy moss.
There, among the moss, I found another interesting fungus.
It looks like a very small puffball on a stalk. The name of the species is Tulostoma brumale.
In this photograph, I came very close to the mushroom to show you the small opening on its top. Without the macro lens, this wouldn't have been possible.
As the sun was rising in the sky the shade was retreating from the hills.
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When I zoomed in on the distant trees, the pattern looked very similar to the growth of Cladonia lichens down on the ground before my feet. In the following photograph ...
... the focus is on the moss again.
The growth of moss between the rocks created some pretty photogenic shapes.
Here you can see some small plants with hairy leaves covered with a multitude of tiny droplets.
Here you can see a dark lichen that grew directly on the rock. It looked a bit like an island surrounded by the petrified sea. The sparse moss that grew on the top of the lichen resembled the trees on that island miniature.
I used the macro lens in this photograph, so you can take a better look at the moss in the central part of the lichen.
I'm pretty sure that this is the Collema auriforme, a jelly lichen from the Collemataceae family.
Here you can see two more Bolbitius titubans mushrooms from the valley.
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And that's it. I haven't found much on that occasion, but since I don't see often mushrooms in January, I found far more than I expected.
The following links will take you to the sites with more information about some of the protagonists of this post. I found some stuff about them there.
https://www.naturespot.org.uk/species/yellow-fieldcap
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cladonia_rangiferina
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cladonia
https://www.first-nature.com/fungi/tulostoma-brumale.php
https://www.dorsetnature.co.uk/pages-lichen/lch-04.html
AS ALWAYS HERE ON HIVE, THE PHOTOGRAPHS ARE MY WORK.