In bleak midwinter, when mycophogists start to look hungry and haunted by the paucity of pickings, velvet shank (flamunilla velutipes) can put a glint back in their eye. It grows between November and March, when, in Scotland, there are very few other mushrooms about.

Here is a quick romp through my wild food and wild places year in pictures.

Wood blewits generally do not appear until there has been at least a light frost. This makes them doubly appealing as other top gourmet mushrooms can become scarce at this point in the season. And make no mistake – these are right up the top tier of the finest edible fungi.

A very common, large mushroom of late autumn, the clouded agaric is on of those awkward fungi that not everyone “gets on with”. Never the less, it is well worth acquainting yourself with it as most late autumn forays will come across it.

The funeral bell contains the same toxins as the death cap, and will kill you with similar sadistic efficiency if you give it the chance…