Dead man’s fingers

29 Friday Jan 2021

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British fungi, Dead man's fingers, fungi, wood-rotting fungi, Xylaria polymorpha

210129 dead man's fingers
Be afraid! A dead man is poking his rotting blackened fingers up from the leaf litter, reaching for the passing ankles of unwary walkers.

Nah, not really, though the ‘fingers’ – really the fungal fruiting bodies of the aptly named Dead man’s fingers (Xylaria polymorpha) – can look rather spooky when first encountered.

As the First Nature website explains, these wood-rotting fungi play an important environmental role:

they specialise in consuming neither the softish cellulose nor the much tougher lignin but rather the polysaccharides … As a result, when these and various other ascomycetous fungi have consumed what they can of a dead stump the remainder is a nutrient-rich soft mess that insects and other small creatures are able to feed upon.

Hairy curtain crust

22 Friday Jan 2021

Posted by sconzani in fungi, winter

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British fungi, crust fungi, Hairy curtain crust, Stereum hirsutum

This colony of Hairy curtain crust (Stereum hirsutum) was making an impressive display on a fallen tree I passed today.

210122 hairy curtain crust (1)

These fungi often start out hugging the wood they’re growing on (the scientific description is resupinate, with the fertile surface adnate to the substrate), then form wavy edged brackets are they age.

210122 hairy curtain crust (2)

The upper surface is hairy (hence the epithet hirsutum), and the lower surface smooth, with no obvious pores.

210122 hairy curtain crust (3)

Winter rusts

15 Friday Jan 2021

Posted by sconzani in fungi, plants

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British fungi, Melampsora euphorbiae, Puccinia lagenophorae, Puccinia smyrnii, rust, rust fungi, rust on Alexanders, rust on Groundsel, rust on Petty spurge, rust on plants

It may be the middle of winter – and chilly with it – but rust fungi can still be found, thriving on those plants that survive these cold temperatures. I’ve found these three in the past week, and I’m sure there must be more around. The good thing about rust fungi is that they generally only infect one species of plant so they’re easier than most fungi to identify – and that’s got to be good thing!

210115 Melampsora euphorbiae

Melampsora euphorbiae on Petty spurge (Euphorbia peplus)

210115 Puccinia lagenophorae

Puccinia lagenophorae on Groundsel (Senecio vulgaris)

210115 Puccinia smyrnii

Puccinia smyrnii on Alexanders (Smyrnium olusatrum)

Ash key fungi

12 Tuesday Jan 2021

Posted by sconzani in fungi, leaves, trees, winter

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Ash tree, British fungi, Diaporthe samaricola, fungi on Ash keys, Neosetophoma samarorum

These two fungi, found on Ash keys, were last week’s record of the week at my local biodiversity records centre, SEWBReC – not my record, that of another local recorder – but seeing this on Twitter last Friday reminded me to check the next Ash trees I saw. That opportunity came on Sunday’s walk and I found the fungi on just the second tree I passed by.

210112 ash key fungi (1)

The two fungi are Diaporthe samaricola (the small black dots on the seed part of the key, on the left below) and Neosetophoma samarorum (the much smaller, black speckles on the wing part of the key, on the right in my photo). Both fungi are under-recorded in my area, so I’ll now be checking all the Ash keys I find.

210112 ash key fungi (2)

Yellow brain fungi

08 Friday Jan 2021

Posted by sconzani in fungi, winter

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British fungi, Tremella mesenterica, winter colour, winter fungi, Yellow Brain Fungus

Yellow is such a cheery colour, and the sight of these bright yellow fungi during a walk on a particularly grey, gloomy day certainly brought a smile to my face.

Although there are two very similar-looking, yellow, jelly-like fungi, I’m 99% sure these are Yellow brain fungi (Tremella mesenterica) because they are parasitic on the Peniophora species of crust fungi (rather than the Stereum hirsutum fungi, on which the other yellow fungi Tremella aurantia are parasitic), and you can, hopefully, just make out the Peniophora fungi (the lilac-grey crust on the wood) in the photo immediately below.

210108 yellow brain fungi (3)

I explained more about these two fungi in my blog Golden ears and Yellow brains, February 2017.

364/366 A vibrant treat

29 Tuesday Dec 2020

Posted by sconzani in fungi, nature, winter

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blue fungus, British fungi, Cobalt crust, Terana caerulea

It would be fair to say that my fungi-finding year was fairly dismal: only about 20 of this year’s 366 blog posts were about fungi. The highlight, though, was brilliant – the vibrant, intense, almost unreal blue of the Cobalt crust (Terana caerulea) that I posted about earlier this month, in Not just any stick. I haven’t yet been back for a second look at it – I’ve been saving that for a New Year treat!

359/366 Winter white

24 Thursday Dec 2020

Posted by sconzani in animals, birds, flowers, fungi, lichen, winter

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the colour white, white in nature, white wildflowers

With no chance of a white Christmas for me, I thought I’d share some of Nature’s whiteness instead.

358/366 Complete tripe

23 Wednesday Dec 2020

Posted by sconzani in fungi, winter

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Auricularia mesenterica, British fungi, jelly fungus, Tripe fungi

Though I always try to vary the routes I walk, I was reminded of how important this is on Monday’s local meander. I usually walk back from our local beach through one of the parks but this day decided to stomp up the hill via the road instead. It was a good choice, as I found lots of lovely Tripe fungi (Auricularia mesenterica) on a large stump beside the road. And the stump held the complete life cycle of the Tripe, from the small rubbery looking buttons to the bracket-like structures they later merge into.

353/366 Old Alder brackets

18 Friday Dec 2020

Posted by sconzani in fungi, trees

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Alder, Alder bracket, bracket fungi, British fungi, Inonotus radiatus

Back in December 2016, I blogged about Alder brackets (Fungi Friday: Alder bracket) and showed then the gorgeous golden globules of liquid that ooze out of them when they’re young. Today’s Alder brackets (scientific name Inonotus radiatus), found in the woodland at Cosmeston Lakes Country Park, have a longer history.

201218 alder bracket (1)

There is certainly some newer growth amongst these brackets but most have been on this Alder tree a long time, as you can tell from the luxuriant growth of moss on the top bracket of the tier.

201218 alder bracket (2)

346/366 A fungal selection

11 Friday Dec 2020

Posted by sconzani in fungi, winter

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British fungi, Common grey disco, Coral spot, Frosty bonnet, fungi, Jelly ear, King Alfred's Cakes, Lemon disco, Velvet shank, woodland fungi

Today, a selection of fungi spotted during my recent walks. Although I’ve named these fungi, my identifications are not based on microscopic examination and so cannot be positively confirmed.

The fungi are, I think, Coral spot (Nectria cinnabarina), Jelly ear (Auricularia auricula-judae), King Alfred’s cakes (Daldinia concentrica), and Velvet shank (Flammulina velutipes). And under the rotting logs in the woodland: Common grey disco (Mollisia cinerea), Lemon disco (Bisporella citrina), and Frosty bonnet (Mycena tenerrima).