It’s October. Autumn is here. Pour yourself a flask of something hot, lace up your boots, and wrap up warm, let’s go and explore! Love the hat, by the way.

Sweet Briar already has its decorations laid out. Droplets of bright red berries cladding hawthorn bushes, wild carrot seed heads bent into their cupped hands grasping for Halloween offerings. The trees have changed to their autumn wardrobe, jackets of yellow and scarves of red.

At this time of year, I’m always on the lookout for fairy rings – most likely to be spotted in woodland and grassy areas.

Fairy rings in nature are the visible above ground evidence of a fungus. For most of the year a fungus exists as tiny white “roots” called hyphae. These are usually hidden away underground or in dead wood. This is how a fungus spends its time before it is ready to reproduce, at which point it creates a fruiting body. Fruiting bodies can be various shapes, sizes, colours, but, whatever they look like, most people refer to them as mushrooms. Mushrooms release spores that act like tiny seeds. Spores will carry on the wind, on animal fur, or maybe even your boots to new spots where they can grow into their own fungi. 

What causes a fairy ring is when these hyphae form a circle underground, which then creates a ring of mushrooms when fruiting. Hyphae form a relationship with the plants on the surface, exchanging water and nutrients. They help each other, like friendly neighbours. However, in times of drought, just like this year, the fungi will betray the plants on the surface for its own survival. Like a vampire that’s been let into the home, the fungi will steal the water from the plants, allowing itself to outlast the drought, leaving the plants high and dry (emphasis on the dry). It does beg the question of whether the regrown plants next year will hold a grudge.

In folklore, mushrooms are often seen as devices of connection and transportation between this world and others. This may be because they spend most of their lives unseen, on a different plane, and then in autumn they appear.

Fairy rings in old tales are the dancing circles of the Faeries. Faeries were referred to as the gentle folk, the good neighbours and more evocatively in Welsh as the Tylwyth Teg (tool-with-tegg) which directly translates to fair folk. However, do not be fooled by their flattering names. You call a fairy ‘fair’ for the same reason you call a growling Alsatian ‘a good dog.’ Faeries in ancient culture are mischievous and sometimes downright dangerous beings and the last thing you want to do is anger one. They can cause all sorts of misfortune, from burning your apple pie, to getting sick, and even causing people to go missing.

In the old tales, fairy rings are created when fairies dance together. If you step into a fairy ring, you run the risk of angering the fairies, who may still be nearby, and you may be forced to dance until you drop, either from exhaustion or death. These fairies don’t mess around. Yeah yeah yeah’s song “heads will roll” obviously had some folkloric influence. If you survive the dance, you will likely be haunted by the otherworldly music for the rest of your life. Other local stories tell of people who turn invisible when they step into a fairy ring, or they get transported off to the fae realm never to return. Either way, hold fast and only look from a distance at the ring of mushrooms.

The giant funnel species perhaps make the most impressive fairy ring. Their large size creates a wonderful grand circle. Dare to take a closer look and you may notice they’ve been broken, trampled on, even upside down. Perhaps by nibbling deer, or maybe by the stamping and prancing of many dancing feet...