IF you take a walk through Habberley Valley now there are some pretty spectacular fungi to encounter.

Probably the largest and most obvious are the parasol mushrooms, so-called due to their large umbrella-shaped caps.

Usually found in the shade of a tree, these mushrooms have a distinctive ring of flesh around the stem, which looks a bit like a medieval ruff, making identification easy.

They also lack the bag-like structure at the base of the stem which is the distinctive characteristic of the deadly amanita family of mushrooms.

Habberley Valley is the home to many wonderful species of mushroom, and I know quite a few people who visit the valley in autumn to collect some for the table, but it is well worth noting there are quite a few very poisonous species, including one of the most deadly of all amanita.

The next most prominent mushroom to be spotted in Habberley Valley at this time is itself a member of that amanita family, but is not so deadly.

This is the tawny grisette, which has the most lovely waxy chestnut brown cap.

The earthball mushroom can also be found in abundance, but these are not so obvious to spot as they are a drab yellow-brown colour and are shaped much like the pebbles you see scattered around the valley.

Despite the earthball's rather uninspiring appearance, it is a member of what is to me one of the most spectacular families of all the mushrooms - the gasteromycetes, or stomach mushrooms.

If you take a penknife and cut an earthball in half, it is easy to see where it got its name, as the cut section looks a lot like a stomach, filled with dark black spores.

As the year progresses, the spores dry out within the leathery outer wall before erupting like a cloud of smoke.

Another of Habberley's famed mushrooms is also a member of the gasteromycetes family. This is the rare and truly weird earth star, which is found growing in association with rotting timber deep in the backwoods of Habberley Valley.

When first discovered this mushroom was so rare it needed to be sent to Kew Gardens for a detailed identification.

It reappeared for a couple of years after this first sighting, but there have now been a couple of years since it was last seen.

As the life cycle of these fungi is so complex, this can be quite normal, so my vigil will start again this year and, if conditions are right, hopefully this most weird of fungi will once again grace the slopes of Habberley Valley.