Some winter fungi

 Not many big fungi around in my neck of the woods at this time of year, but plenty of interesting smaller ones.

This is yellow brain fungus Tremella mesenterica, a parasite on another fungus called Peniophora that grows on dead gorse stems.

I first saw crimp gills Plicaturopsis crispa (upper and lower-side views above) near Durham city ten years ago (original post here), and since then they have become very common, growing on fallen dead birch and hazel branches

Candle snuff Xylaria hypoxylon is very common on dead wood.

These are ivory coral Ramariopsis kunzei, growing in a local Scots pine plantation

Exquisite variable oysterling Crepidotus variabilis, on a dead twig.

Coral spot Nectria cinnabarina exists in two forms. The orange pustules are the asexual stage, producing conidiospores. Eventually, they give way to the cinnabar-coloured sexually reproducing form, that introduces genetic variability into the population. 

Mellow yellow

Yellow brain fungus Tremella mesenterica, growing on a dead branch of a large Cotoneaster in Kirkby Stephen in Cumbria. This fungus didn't kill the branch; it's a parasite on another fungus in the genus Peronospora, which had already killed the branch. The fungus is paler when young, but matures to this vibrant shade of chrome yellow.

This aspen Populus tremula, growing in upper Swaledale in North Yorkshire, is the brightest tree in the local landscape at present, beating strong competition from birches and rowans. Aspen leaf stalks are laterally flattened so each leaf flutters from side to side in the slightest breeze and the whole tree seems to shimmer.

Pictures of the winter buds of aspen here and of the fungus that attacks its leaves here.