Category Archives: fungi

77/366 Eyelash fungi

17 Tuesday Mar 2020

Posted by in fungi, nature

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

, , , ,

As you can see from my photos, the aptly named Eyelash fungi have hair-like bristles around their outer edges.

200317 eyelash fungi (1)

These particular Eyelashes can currently be found in large numbers in the west paddock at Cosmeston Lakes Country Park, where I presume they are enjoying the soggy muddy conditions, though they are growing on banks and slightly raised areas rather than in the completely sodden soil of the flatter parts.

When compared to the Eyelash fungi I blogged about back in May 2016 (see ‘Fluttering their eyelashes’ here), these latest examples have much shorter lashes. They are probably one of the Scutellinia species – possibly Scutellinia olivascens – but there are many very similar species of Eyelash fungi and you need to examine them under a microscope to be able to identify them correctly.

200317 eyelash fungi (4)

56/366 Spots and splashes

25 Tuesday Feb 2020

Posted by in fungi, lichen, nature

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

, , , , ,

Amidst all the greys and browns and dull greens of the wintertime natural world, there are still wonderful wee spots and splashes of colour to be found. These are some I found during today’s stomp around Cosmeston, a rather rapid stomp trying, unsuccessfully, to avoid the rain showers.

200225 lichen and fungi (1)

I’m not good at identifying lichens but I do love their fresh, bright yellow-greens, especially on the twigs and small branches that have recently blown down from the tree tops.

200225 lichen and fungi (4)200225 lichen and fungi (5)

The tiny bursts of lollipop pink are Illosporiopsis christiansenii, a lichenicolous fungus (that’s a fungus which is parasitic on lichens, usually on Physcia tenella and sometimes on Xanthoria parietina).

And the pretty pops of orange, found on several fence posts, are Common Jellyspot fungus, Dacrymyces stillatus.

200225 lichen and fungi (8)

17/366 Starry soils

17 Friday Jan 2020

Posted by in fungi, nature

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

, , , ,

I know we usually speak of starry skies rather than starry soils but, three years ago, when I still lived in Cardiff, I found this one small patch of dirt, ’neath towering conifers in a local cemetery, where the stars could be found emerging from the soil.

200117 earthstar (1)

These Collared earthstars are the reason for the name of this blog: they show how amazing things can be found in everyday places if we only look; they show how incredible Nature is; they inspired me to write this blog, to try to get people to open their eyes to the beauty our world has to offer, even ten minutes’ walk from home.

200117 earthstar (2)

This cemetery is no longer managed with wildlife in mind – it is overly neatened and tidied – so I was particularly delighted, during a recent walk, to find these earthstars had escaped the over enthusiast strimming and pruning and scraping and chopping of the council’s operatives. Fingers crossed they continue to thrive.

200117 earthstar (3)

10/366 In my cups

10 Friday Jan 2020

Posted by in fungi, nature, winter

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

, , ,

It seems appropriate that I should be ‘in my cups’ on a Friday night, the traditional night at the end of the working week for downing an alcoholic beverage or three. But, in my case, I neither work nor drink, and my ‘cups’ are fungi, Scarlet elfcups to be precise. As these are one of my favourite species of fungi I’ve blogged about them several times before and explained, in a blog back in 2017, how I know these are Scarlet, not the less common Ruby elfcups. They are always a joy to find, and they recur at this particular site every year.

(Though, as you’ll see in that previous blog, I was excited to learn how to identify fungi using microscopy, I didn’t continue with it. SEWBReC moved to an out-of-town location so it would now be a two-bus ninety-minute journey to their office, and I didn’t want the expense of buying my own microscope.)

361/365 Soggy shanks

27 Friday Dec 2019

Posted by in fungi, nature

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

, , , ,

It was so misty and soggy out today that I could hear more than I could see, particularly as my specs were alternately splattered with raindrops or steamed up.

191227 velvet shanks (1)

Yet, these gorgeous fungi were impossible to miss, a burst of golden orange amongst the drab browns and greys and greens.

191227 velvet shanks (2)

These are very slippery, soggy examples of Velvet shanks (Flammulina velutipes).

191227 velvet shanks (3)

353/365 Oak curtain crust

19 Thursday Dec 2019

Posted by in fungi, nature, winter

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

, , , ,

‘Nearly always associated with dead oak trees, this easily-overlooked crust fungus varies considerably in its appearance, sometimes mainly resupinate beneath fallen logs but usually in bracket form when on dead stumps,’ writes Pat O’Reilly on his First Nature website. The specimens of Oak curtain crust fungi I found yesterday, in Cardiff’s Grangemoor Park, were definitely growing on oak but, in this case, they were on thick, solid oak logs that have been used to construct benches and signposts.

191219 Oak Curtain Crust (2)

I always enjoy reading the etymology entries on O’Reilly’s website. Oak curtain crust’s binomial name is Hymenochaete rubiginosa, which is explained as follows:

Hymenochaete, the genus name, comes from hymen – a prefix referring to the fertile membrane (the crust surface), and -chaete perhaps from the Greek noun chaite meaning long hair and perhaps referring to the fine hairs (settae) on the upper surfaces of fungi in this generic group.
The specific epithet rubiginosa means rusty and refers to the reddish-brown colour of the hymenial (fertile) surface of this crust fungus.

191219 Oak Curtain Crust (1)

340/365 Plums and custard

06 Friday Dec 2019

Posted by in fungi, nature, trees, winter

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , ,

In this case, Plums and custard does not refer to a tasty Friday night dessert, sadly, but rather to a deliciously named fungus with the scientific name Tricholomopsis rutilans, which certainly does not roll off the tongue.

191206 plums and custard (1)

The Plums and custard name (and the alternate, Strawberry fungus) don’t refer to taste or edibility, however – at its most vibrant, this fungus displays rich shades of a plum-like colour on its cap and its gills are a lovely custard yellow.

These wood-rotting fungi are usually found growing on decaying conifers, and you can read more about them, their habitats, and their identification features on the First Nature website.

191206 plums and custard (6)

338/365 Slime time

04 Wednesday Dec 2019

Posted by in fungi, nature, winter

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

, , , ,

At this time of year, I am often caught out by curious passers-by, pulling dead umbellifer stems carefully out of the ground and, as I don’t wear my reading glasses when out walking, pushing up my other specs and pulling the stems very near to my face for close examination.

191204 comatricha nigra (2)

Most people walk quickly past with a hurried but cautious hello to the ‘mad woman’ but some, the braver or more curious, will dare to ask what I’m looking at. And after I show them the gorgeous little things I’ve found, I like to think they might actually, at some future date, pull up the odd stem themselves for a look.

191204 comatricha nigra (1)191204 comatricha nigra (3)

I think these tiny lollipops are from the Comatricha family of slime moulds, possibly Comatricha nigra. They start off very light in colour, gradually darken to a very dark brown, almost black, before drying and crumbling to release their spores.

191204 comatricha nigra (4)

331/365 Groovy bonnets

27 Wednesday Nov 2019

Posted by in autumn, fungi, nature

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

, , , , ,

Finally some fungi I can identify with confidence because, as Pat O’Reilly explains on the First Nature website,

Cap colour is rarely of much help when you are struggling to identify a Mycena, as they vary so much with age, location, humidity and growing substrate. If you look closely at the stem of a Grooved Bonnet you will see that it has longitudinal striations, whereas other common bonnet mushrooms have smooth stems.

So, the striated stems you can, hopefully, see in my second photo below prove that these lovely little bonnets I found growing in a tree in the grounds of a local church are … taaa daas! … Grooved bonnets (Mycena polygramma).