Category Archives: fungi

Sycamore tarspot

09 Friday Sep 2022

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As the South East Wales Biodiversity Records Centre has only 400 records of the very easily identifiable Sycamore tarspot (Rhytisma acerinum) in its database, SEWBReC staff have chosen this fungus to be the September species of the month to inspire as many people as possible to find and record this fungus. Using the Welsh records database Aderyn, it’s possible to see where people have recorded Sycamore tarspot and, more importantly for this exercise, where they haven’t. I know this fungus is very common in my local area, yet there are few records.

So, I’m making it my mission during my walks this month to find and record Sycamore tarspot in as many 1-km squares as possible. I got off to a good start on Wednesday, with records logged in four new squares. It will be interesting to see how many more I can get, and to see how many records other people manage to find over the next few weeks. I’m picking the map will change dramatically by 30 September.

220909 sycamore tarspot

The Sulphur polypore

02 Friday Sep 2022

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This lovely old Oak tree was a victim of a storm back in the spring. As it’s in a corner of a local nature reserve, it’s been left for the fungi and insects to enjoy and, eventually, break down. And, when I walked that way on Tuesday, I noticed the fungi have been busy. This is Chicken-of-the-woods (Laetiporus sulphureus), normally a bright sulphur yellow, hence its alternate name of Sulphur polypore, but well past its best now and looking quite woody. To see a younger version of this fungus, check out my previous post on the topic, Chicken-of-the-woods, September 2021.

220902 chicken of the woods

Humongous fungus

05 Friday Aug 2022

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During Monday’s local meander I was hugely surprised to spot this humongous fungus, though I shouldn’t have been. Dryad’s saddle (Polyporus squamosus) is actually one of the first bracket fungi to appear each year, often sprouting its saddle-shaped ledges during the summer months when you’d least expect fungi to appear. This one was in a shady woodland, in an area less affected by the scorching sun that’s parched much of the land around here, so it was certainly a much more fungi-friendly location.

220805 dryads saddle

More woodland rusts

15 Friday Apr 2022

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I was admiring the glorious display of Primrose in a local wood when I noticed that many of the plants’ leaves had yellowish spots on their upper leaves. Rust, I thought, and, sure enough, on turning the leaves over, I could see the tiny cup-shaped aecia on the undersides, which confirmed this as Primrose rust (Puccinia primulae).

I found this second rust during today’s woodland meander. It’s Melampsora populnea on Dog’s mercury (Mercurialis perennis). Once again, there are yellowish marks on the upper leaves and, this time, rather than cups, there are minuscule splodges of yellow underneath. Neither of these rusts seems to do much harm to the plants.

Woodland rusts

08 Friday Apr 2022

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During my wander through a local woodland earlier this week, while admiring the golden carpets of Lesser celandine, I noticed small spots on some of the leaves. Closer examination and some photos showed that this was the rust Uromyces dactylidis, also known as Celandine clustercup fungus for the clusters of tiny orange cup-shaped aecia on the undersides of the leaves.

Once I had my ‘rust eye’ in, I then noticed more on other plants. Many, like Bluebell rust (Uromyces muscari) I have covered here before but this one, Melampsora epitea on Spindle (Euonymus europaeus), was a new one for me.

220408 Melampsora epitea (1)