A mushroom, or indeed any fungus, is only the reproductive part of the organism (called the fruit body) which develops to form and distribute the spores. A fungus is made up entirely of minute, hair-like filaments, called hyphae. This hyphae develop into a fine cobweb-like net, (called mycelium) and grow through the material from which the fungus obtains it nutrition.
Fungi convert the sun's energy into food and feed on other plant and animal material. They do not need sunlight as they use enzymes to dissolve their food before they absorb it.
The best time to look for fungi, is late summer, autumn and early winter, although there are a few spring species to look out for. Beech woods and pine forests hold very rich habitat for fungi, also sheep-cropped meadows and fields.

Oyster Mushroom Pleuroyus ostreatus Cap 6 - 14cm across, shell shaped, convex at first then flattening or slightly depressed and often wavy and lobed at the margin or splitting, variable in colour; flesh-brown or deep blue-grey later more grey-brown. Habitat - often in large clusters on stumps and fallen of standing trunks, usually of deciduous trees, especially beech....Season - All year.

Puffball Calvatia excipuliformis 8 - 20cm high, pestle-shaped, head 3 - 10cm across, pale buff at first then brownish, outer surface of small spines or warts which soon disappear exposing the yellowish, papery inner wall of which the upper portion breaks away to expose the spores. The fertile material develops inside a spherical or pear-shaped fruitbody which splits open to release powder type spores. Habitats - They grow either on the ground or on rotting wooden waste ground, heaths, pastures.                            Season - late summer to autumn.

Earth Tongues Geoglossum cookeianum Nannfeldt Miniature black pokers, fruit body 3-7cm high 0.5-1 cm wide, black, smooth, flattened club-shaped tapering into the narrower stalk Paraphses elongated terminally in a short chain of almost globose to barrel-shaped segments. Spores brown, subcylindric, seven-septate. Habitats, in grasslands...Season autumn

Clavulinopsis luteo-alba Fruit body up to 6cm high, 1-4mm wide, light to dark yellow or apricot, with whitish or pallid tip, simple. Spores white, ellipsoid, 5-8 X 2.5-4.5u Habitats in short tur...Season autumn.

Coprinus The Ink Cap The gills are crowded and parallel sided and in most species they quickly auto-digest (deliquesce) which results in the dripping black inky fluid. The young fungus may be covered by a thick wooly veil that leaves felty scales on the cap Habitats, grow on the ground, on wood and on dung.

Birch Polypore Piptoporus betulinus Found on the trunks of birch trees, it is a semi-circular fungi of approx 5cm thick with a brown upper and white underside. Found all year round