They’re all types of fungi, and you can find them all – along with hundreds of other species – at Potteric Carr. Now’s the best time to go searching for them, as the cooler, wetter weather of autumn prompts them to burst out in all their glory, often appearing overnight.

Fungi are fascinating organisms that play a vital role in our ecosystems. The fruits – the parts you can see - are just the tips of the iceberg. Hidden underground, there’s a vast network that breaks down plant matter and dung, releasing essential nutrients back into the ground. It also helps form a “wood wide web,” linking trees and allowing them to communicate with each other.

Potteric Carr is something of a fungi paradise: its mixture of different habitats encourages a wide variety of species to flourish.

If you want something that’s spectacular and hard to miss, head for Black Carr Field. Its pristine grassland, untainted by chemical treatments, is the perfect place to marvel at huge parasol mushrooms. Much smaller but far more brightly-coloured is fly agaric – the classic “elves’ seat” red toadstool with white spots.

Walk into Potteric Carr’s woodlands and you’ll be surrounded by a wealth of different species, but many are small, expertly camouflaged and hidden among the leaf litter, so you’ll need to take your time and keep your eyes well peeled.

If you do, you’ll be rewarded with magnificent examples of nature’s beauty: the delicate pink wood blewit; the shaggy inkcap with its top that looks like a lawyer’s wig; the tiny candlesnuff fungus, which resembles a snuffed-out candle wick.

It's tempting to spend all your time with your eyes fixed on the ground, scouring the leaf-litter, but don’t forget to look up too. Some fungi grow on trees – including oyster mushrooms, which are often found on beeches, and hoof fungi, which are shaped like horses’ hooves and favour silver birches.

There are around 5,000 different types of fungi in the UK. Some look very similar, and even experts struggle to positively identify every specimen they come across. So how can you improve your recognition skills?

I got some tips when I joined Kat Woolley and a group of Yorkshire Wildlife Trust volunteers for a fungi foray around Potteric Carr. Kat, who’s an inspiring people officer and forest school leader with YWT, has been a fungi fanatic for ten years.

As well as several weighty identification guides, she takes a small mirror on her fungi-finding expeditions. Place it on the ground under a mushroom and you reveal its gills – the thin, papery structures hidden under its cap. A magnifying glass will also give you a much clearer view of some of the smaller species

A penknife comes in handy for dissecting specimens to reveal some of their secrets, although you should be careful not to pick too many and make sure you leave some of the fruits to continue growing.

One of the best ways of identifying a fungus is to give it a good sniff. Some species are even named after their distinctive smell – like the stinking dapperling we came across in the woods, which has a rubbery odour, or the common funnel, found nearby, which has a faint almondy whiff. 

Should you also have a taste of the fungi you find? Only if you’re absolutely sure you know exactly what you’re dealing with.

Some mushrooms – like the poison pie and roll-rim we discovered - are highly toxic. Often it can be extremely difficult to distinguish the delicious from the deadly - so leave it to the experts! And that brings us to the other item in Kat’s fungi foray kit – a bottle of hand sanitiser to use after handling specimens.

After five hours of scouring Potteric Carr’s woods and fields, we head back to the visitor centre. We’ve spotted around 30 different species, with fantastic names like white saddle, deer shield, giant puffball and rosy bonnet, but it’s only a small fraction of the number that can be found on the reserve.

And – who knows – there may be another real rarity hiding in a quiet spot and waiting to be discovered.