The Horn of Plenty 13th November 2025

With a dire weather forecast of high winds and continuous rain for tomorrow I took the opportunity to make the most of today, one of mild temperatures, little wind and sunshine, to get out and about in the countryside.

After an hour in a bird hide staring at nothing much I had to accept it was very quiet on the bird front so a text from Peter mid morning telling me about an interesting fungus he had found on a lone sortie into the Chilterns, had me making my way to a beechwood lying deep within the gentle hills of rural Buckinghamshire.

The fungus in question that had us both so enthused is called The Horn of Plenty and Peter told me he had found quite a number of their black, trumpet like fruiting bodies growing in the leaf litter that had fallen from the beech trees he was currently standing under. I have only seen this fungus once before when I was delighted to unexpectedly find a few by a track in a beechwood in Berkshire see here so was keen to repeat the experience.

They are a member of the Chanterelle family, exceptionally good to eat and can only be picked from the wild as they cannot be cultivated, so as a consequence they are in limited supply and eagerly sought after by those who go foraging for fungi in our woods either for their own culinary use or to sell on to restaurants or upmarket foodstores. Such is the demand they are very expensive to buy if you can find somewhere that sells them which is by no means easy. 

Being a fungus that is very good to eat, free to collect from the wild and much desired by gourmets serves as something of a curse these days as many woods can and are stripped of edible fungi which have no legal protection apart from on nature reserves but even they suffer from illegal collecting so you will understand that  I do not wish to divulge the location of these Horn of Plenty in order to protect them.

They are localised in Britain but where they do grow can be abundant, forming large colonies called troops,  especially in their favoured beechwoods.  Their worldwide distribution is extensive stretching from North America across Eurasia to Australia and.they have various names all relating to their sombre appearance. The two most widely known names being Horn of Plenty from its Latin name Craterellus cornucopioides relating to its culinary properties and Trompette des Morts (Trumpet of the Dead) based on the ancient belief that its location and funereal colouring related to the buried dead that were communicating with the living via the black, trumpet like fruiting body growing out of the ground. 

I met Peter at a pre-arranged rendezvous by the entrance to the wood and we then followed a track up a very steep slope where countless numbers of fallen leaves, the colour of burnished bronze formed a soft russett brown carpet inches deep into which our feet sank as we progressed upwards, while the mature beeches around us rose to the sky above, many still with yellowing leaves clinging stubbornly to their twigs and branches as if reluctant to concede to the inevitable

I feel a great affection for places like this that provide an alternative to our forever busy lives, where you can turn off a busy road to take a side lane that winds into the hills and leave the humdrum  hustle and noise of everyday human existence behind, to enter a wood of autumn colours, standing silent and still but for the  occasional sound of an invisible bird or the sight of the slow twisting descent to earth of a golden leaf falling from on high. 

It is almost like entering a church, a feeling of reverential respect comes unbidden to command my silence as I stand mute below the silent trees searching the ground for the The Horn of Plenty. The anxiety and worry that is always an accompaniment to twitching birds is absent as there is no urgency and no one else around apart from, in this case a colleague with a similar mindset.Truly relaxing and life affirming.This is mindfulness, living in the moment, cleansing body and soul.

We continued our ascent, scuffing through leaves softened by rain, until Peter pointed to our right and spoke.

There they are. Can you see them?

For a minute I could not but then came revelation as I saw several clusters of grey and black funnels or trumpets, the lips of the bodies fluted and curled into a contorted unevenness, the 'funnels' thrust up on hollow grey stalks that rise but a few inches above the blanketing of leaves, some smaller funnels remaining almost concealed in the leaves while others, larger and standing proud are more obvious

The fruiting body or cap can range from 2-8cms across and is tubular with a flared mouth, the margins becoming irregularly distorted and wavy.The colour is grey on the outer surfaces and as the trumpet becomes fully formed is black on the inside.They are far from obvious in the deep leaf litter from which they emerge from September to December, exactly when the leaves have fallen and cluster around in drifts to half conceal them.

The fact they are short in stature and black or dark grey renders them hard to see and not as conspicuous as other fungi.This only adds to the pleasure when you discover them growing under the beech trees.

As I looked more and more became obvious and with my eye now definitely in I found other outposts in the carpet of leaves, growing over a fairly extensive but still defined area within the wood  

This will probably be my last fungus foray for this year but certainly is a highlight and one to savour through the coming winter months.