New fungus: Linospora saligna

17 Friday Mar 2023

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British fungi, fungi on Salix leaves, fungi on willow leaves, fungus on leaf, Linospora saligna

Inspired by Gwent birder and naturalist Lee Gregory’s recent (3 March) first record for Wales of the fungus Linospora saligna, which looks like small dark speckles on dead Salix leaves, I went searching last Saturday morning in areas where I knew Willow trees grow. And I was a little surprised at how easy they were to find. I spotted the fungus at two locations along the path around Cardiff’s Grangemoor Park, and I’ve also since found it under Salix trees near Cardiff Bay’s Barrage. Although Lee’s record was a Welsh first and the NBN Atlas shows very few confirmed records for the rest of Britain, this is obviously another instance where a species is under-recorded, presumably because no one knows to look for it. I’m aware that Lee has already found several further records, and I will certainly continue to check for these speckled leaves wherever I see Willow trees.

230317 Linospora saligna

Wobbling no more

03 Friday Mar 2023

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British fungi, fungus, Tremella mesenterica, Yellow brain, Yellow Brain Fungus

I was hesitant with my identification of this fungus at first as previous examples I’ve seen have been yellow and jelly-like – poke them and they wobble.

Then I read, on the First Nature website, that ‘in dry weather this fungus becomes a hard orange bracket’. Also, this particular fungus feeds on other fungi, crusts in the Peniophora genus, and I couldn’t see any crusts on this branch. First Nature explains it again:

Very little or none of the Peniophora may be visible; this is because Tremella mesenterica feeds on the mycelium of the Peniophora fungus, and that can be deep inside the timber rather than on its surface. The fruiting body of the crust fungus does not even have to be present, therefore, and so it may look as though Yellow Brain is feeding directly on the host wood.

So, reassured by the website’s explanations, I believe I can confidently say this is Yellow brain fungus (Tremella mesenterica). Happy Fungi Friday!

Brackets

24 Friday Feb 2023

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bracket fungi, Trametes versicolor, Turkey tail

Wet weather does have some compensations, especially when it comes to fungi. This marvellous display of fungal brackets had been looking rather dry and shrivelled but a good blast of recent rain has rehydrated and refreshed the whole stump full. They’re Turkey tails, I think, Trametes versicolor.

230224 brackets

Springtail and slime

17 Friday Feb 2023

Posted by sconzani in fungi, insects, leaves

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British springtails, Dicyrtomina ornata, insects on Sycamore, leaf litter, slime, slime mould, slime on Sycamore leaf, springtail, Sycamore leaves

My most recent leaf-diving session in my favourite slimy Sycamore leaf spot turned up these two tiny treasures. This first is a miniscule springtail with a very hairy bottom which I think is Dicyrtomina ornata. There is another very similar springtail, Dicyrtomina saundersi, but that has distinct orange patches on its antennae and I’m not seeing that in my photos of this little critter.

230217 springtail

The second treasure was a lovely bit of slime, which may or may not be Metatrichia floriformis. Slime moulds can be tricky to identify accurately and I’m well out of practice.

230217 slime

Holly speckle

15 Wednesday Feb 2023

Posted by sconzani in fungi, plants

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British fungi, fungus on Holly, Holly, Holly speckle, Trochila ilicina

Have you ever noticed what look like little black spots on the brown fallen leaves of Holly? This is the perfectly named fungus Holly speckle (Trochila ilicina) and those spots, or speckles, are, in fact, the fungal fruiting bodies. When they first develop, they are a dark olive green but, after their lids open and the spores within are released, the speckles come to resemble tiny black craters. If you want to know more, a blog on the Woodlands.co.uk website has a very detailed description of these intriguing fungi, as well as an explanation of how their fruiting mechanism functions.

230215 holly speckle

A single earthstar

10 Friday Feb 2023

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earthstar, Earthstar fungi

In previous years, I’ve found as many as 40 earthstar fungi in this particular location in a Cardiff cemetery; during Monday’s walk, despite a very thorough search, I found just this one. Even so, it was a welcome sight, as a visit to the cemetery late last year, when these fungi should’ve been at their peak, didn’t produce any specimens.

230210 earthstar (1) 230210 earthstar (2)

Golden shanks

13 Friday Jan 2023

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British fungi, Enoki mushroom, Flammulina velutipes, fungus, Velvet shanks

Velvet shanks (Flammulina velutipes) always look to me like they would taste delicious, like layers of crumpets dripping in runny golden honey. And, though I’ve never tried them, they are indeed edible; the commercially grown versions (also known as Enoki) can be purchased in cans and jars, very occasionally fresh in some supermarkets and many specialist food shops.

230113 velvet shanks

Silverleaf

30 Friday Dec 2022

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British fungi, Chondrostereum purpureum, fungus, Silver leaf fungus, Silverleaf fungus

The pinkish-purple colour of this fungus makes its identification a little easier than many fungi, and is reflected in the epithet of its scientific name, Chondrostereum purpureum. Its common name, Silverleaf (or Silver leaf) fungus, comes from the damage the fungus can do as a parasite of some species of fruit trees.

221230 silverleaf fungus (1)

I’ve only ever seen it on dead wood, as in these photos, where it starts off looking like a crust spread across the surface of the sawn end of a tree, then, as it grows, develops into brackets, with a hairy upper surface and white edges.

221230 silverleaf fungus (2)

On narrow-leaved willows

26 Monday Dec 2022

Posted by sconzani in fungi, insects, leaves, trees

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Aculus tetanothrix, Euura proxima, hoverfly larva, insects on narrow-leaved willow, ladybird pupa, leafmines on narrow-leaved willow, mite galls, moth eggs, Phyllonorycter viminiella, rust on willow, sawfly galls

In early October I, and others, began a new leafmine search, for mines on narrow-leaved willows (see Leafmines: Phyllocnistis saligna, 3 October). In the months since, I’ve only found these mines in two locations, partly due to a lack of the host plants and partly, probably, because the moths have yet to spread very far (which may be because of a lack of host plants). I’ll continue the search next autumn but, in the course of my search – and this is one of the brilliant things about staring at leaves – I’ve found many other life forms that were making these leaves their home.

221226 on willow (1)

I found two types of galls: the first, above top, have been made by a species of mite, Aculus tetanothrix, and those immediately above are home to the larvae of the sawfly species, Euura proxima.

221226 on willow (2)

On the underside of one leaf I found this array of what I think are moth eggs and, on the right, is the pupa of a ladybird, and, below those, is a hoverfly larva.

221226 on willow (3)

There was also a different species of leafminer, the tiny moth Phyllonorycter viminiella, and I found a rust, which might be Melampsora caprearum.

Tufts of sulphur

23 Friday Dec 2022

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British fungi, Hypholoma fasciculare, Sulphur tuft, wood-rotting fungi

During my recent walks to marvel at the autumn colours of the Beautiful Beeches of Cwm George in Dinas Powys, I noticed that one of the Beech trees had, at some time in the past, succumbed to the ravages of time and weather and, where once a majestic giant stood tall, there was now a large, crumbling stump.

221223 sulphur tuft (1)

As well as a thick covering of fallen leaves, the greens of moss, ivy and a thin clump of grass, the stump was providing a home – and food – to fungi, a thriving colony of Sulphur tuft (Hypholoma fasciculare), one of our most common wood-rotters. I’m sure this is a fungus almost all my followers will have seen.

221223 sulphur tuft (2)