Down in the moss

These photographs were taken between autumn 2023 and late autumn 2025, mostly with a 90mm macro lens. Close to the ground, a few mushrooms fill the frame, with moss around their stems and fallen leaves behind them. Seen from below, their caps look a little like rooftops. The fungus also grows as fine threads through soil or decaying wood. Those threads form the mycelium, most of it hidden from my camera.

Around the roots

The purple mushrooms in this photograph are Laccaria, known in German as Lacktrichterlinge. They form a partnership with trees. Their fungal threads grow around the fine roots, helping the tree take up water and nutrients. In return, the fungus receives sugars produced by the tree. The mushrooms above ground are one visible part of that relationship. My photograph shows their colour. The exchange between fungus and tree takes place out of sight.

A closer look

The bonnet mushrooms, or Mycena, in many of my pictures grow among fallen leaves and dead wood. Many feed on decaying material, helping return nutrients to the soil. In one shot, fine stalks rise from a mushroom’s cap, giving it a bristly outline. They belong to Spinellus, a mould growing on the mushroom itself. What looks like an unusual cap is a mushroom with another fungus growing on it.