Melinda Bell, age 70, from Ashby, has spotted a rare fungus for the first time in Leicestershire and the most northerly sighting in the UK.

Melinda discovered the fungus, which was later identified as a candelabra coral, on a mossy log during in walk in Burrow Wood, near Copt Oak.

She took photos of the fungus to take home and try to identify it using books and the internet.

The Leicestershire Fungi Study Group identified the fungus on 28 September.

This is the first sighting of the fungus in Leicestershire, with it only previously being spotted handful of times over the last century. There was almost 116 years where the fungus was not spotted in the UK before being found in Suffolk in 2012.

Since then, it has been recorded in Kent in 2021, Norfolk in 2022, Middlesex in 2023 and in Surrey and Sussex last year.

The distinctive fungus is known to like living on rotting hardwood logs and works with a family of different fungi to decompose and recycle wood in similar damp habitats.

However, although this habitat is very common in the UK, it is not known why this particular fungus is so rarely spotted.

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