On a recent walk on the Underhill path below Ailwood Down behind our place. I stopped beside an old tree with a wonderfully twisting woody stem winding around its trunk. Near the base, a broad, patterned fungus spread out like a little shelf. Higher up, another bracket caught the light.
It was one of those small discoveries that makes you pause. We often walk with our eyes on the path ahead or the view beyond, but there’s plenty to notice closer to our feet.
A Pattern Worth Looking At
The fungus appears to be a dryad’s saddle, also known as pheasant’s back, although its identification still needs confirming. Its pale surface, scattered with brown scales, fits the description.
The second name is particularly apt: those markings resemble the patterned feathers on a pheasant’s back. With pheasants calling across the fields here at Ailwood, it makes a lovely connection between two quite different parts of our countryside.
Dryad’s saddle is a bracket fungus. Rather than standing on the woodland floor like a familiar mushroom, it grows out from dying trees, forming broad caps that can appear in tiers along a trunk. Beneath the cap are tiny pores rather than gills. This is a useful detail to photograph if you’re trying to identify one.
What an Old Tree Gives Back
Looking at the weathered hazel tree trunk, it would be easy to think its useful life was coming to an end. Yet decaying wood supports a whole community of organisms.
Fungi help break down timber, gradually releasing nutrients that can return to the woodland soil. Deadwood also provides food and shelter for insects and other wildlife. What looks worn out to us can still be a valuable part of a living woodland.
Dryad’s saddle can grow on living broadleaved trees as well as continuing to feed on dead wood. Its presence doesn’t tell us the whole story of this particular tree, but it does offer a glimpse of the processes usually hidden from view.
Hazel trees are incredibly resilient as we know from the coppicing tradition. Even if this specific trunk fails it will through up vigorous new shoots from the ground level. This is what is called epicormic growth. Amazing mother nature.
Time to Notice
That’s one of the pleasures of walking here. A ridge walk gives you the wide views, while a sheltered stretch among the trees invites you to look more closely: at bark, berries, fallen leaves and the unexpected shapes of fungi.
You don’t need to know the name of everything to enjoy it. Sometimes a photograph and a little curiosity are enough to begin discovering another layer of the landscape.
I’ll be keeping an eye on this tree when I pass again. For now, it has given me a lovely reminder that even an old, weathered trunk can have plenty of life left to share.
*Please enjoy fungi where they grow. This is a tentative identification, not advice on whether a fungus is safe to eat.*
