Category Archives: fungi

Waxcaps, but fleeting

22 Wednesday Oct 2025

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Last week I went for a meander around Cathays Cemetery in Cardiff, looking for waxcaps. The cemetery is a SSSI (a Site of Special Scientific Interest) because of its waxcaps, and they are stunning. The SSSI designation is supposed to ensure the site is protected from environmental damage, and managed in a way that benefits the flora and/or fauna that resulted in its designation, but it doesn’t.

All of the beautiful waxcaps pictured in this post would have been destroyed by the end of that day because a council worker was cutting the grass. In fact, I only had time to check a couple of the uncut blocks within the grounds before they too were mown.

This is typical of Cardiff Council’s assault on the natural environment. They’ve been told by ecologists how the cemetery should be managed but they ignore that advice, cut when the waxcaps are fruiting, and leave the clippings.

This is a deliberate decision by the Council; and the situation could easily be remedied either by mowing the grass a little earlier or a little later in the year. And, if budget cuts mean they can’t afford to purchase a mower than removes the clippings, then they could co-ordinate the mowing with the cemetery Friends group and other voluntary groups to rake the clippings. But they don’t.

An inedible dessert

17 Friday Oct 2025

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When you read the name Plums and Custard, you might well think, as I always do, that it sound like a delicious dessert. If only!

In this instance, Plums and Custard is not your Friday night after-dinner delight but a fungus, also known as Tricholomopsis rutilans. The two parts of the name come from the cap, which starts off a rich plum colour but fades over time, and the custard yellow colour of the gills. And, no, you shouldn’t eat it, no matter how edible it looks.

Though you can’t always see this – and you certainly can’t in my photos, these fungi grow on wood, specifically decayed conifers, usually pine. They’re often found in large groups, and are common throughout the UK.

Date waxcaps

15 Wednesday Oct 2025

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During last Sunday’s local meander, I couldn’t help but notice how the recent rains have triggered autumnal fungi to begin fruiting and so, as I often find fungi very photogenic, I took rather a lot of photos. Of course, when I got home and thought I’d try to put names to those I’d photographed, I was reminded, as happens every year, of how tricky they can be to identify and of how many require microscopic analysis to determine their exact species. I, almost literally, threw my hands in the air, filed the photos in a temp folder, and didn’t look at them again until yesterday.

And then, when I went through the images more carefully and looked more closely, I realised that I might just have found something rather good, something I’d never seen before, something quite rare. I sought opinions from a couple of fungi experts and both agreed with me – you could’ve knocked me over with a feather … or a fungus!

These are Date waxcaps, also known as Date-coloured waxcaps, Hygrocybe spadicea. There are fewer than 100 British records of these beauties showing on iRecord but, luckily for those of us who live here, Wales has enjoyed the majority of those sightings. I understand they are found most years at Kenfig National Nature Reserve and, in the past, there have been one-off sightings in a couple of places around Cardiff but none since 2018.

Like most waxcap species, Hygrocybe spadicea grows mostly on unimproved calcareous grasslands but fungi don’t always follow what we humans think we know about them. Mine were growing on a road verge, under an Ash tree. Perhaps they have survived from the time when the area was unimproved grassland, before roads and houses were built all around them.

I revisited the site today, for a better look and to take more images. Amazingly, the waxcaps were more abundant than I had initially thought, with many still just emerging brown bumps barely visible amongst the grass. I’m still buzzing from the find.

Slippery Jacks

03 Friday Oct 2025

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We’re currently in the grip of Storm Amy, our first named storm of the season; thus far, she’s just bringing constant heavy rain to us in south Wales but is forecast to bring strong winds later tonight and tomorrow. Still, after this summer’s drought, rain is welcome and, though I got drenched during my quick morning walk, I did find some of the positive effects of the rain: fungi.

I’m a bit out of practice identifying fungi – my enthusiasm diminished when I was confronted with the need to examine many finds with a microscope to identify them, and died completely when potential foragers wanted to know where my finds were located. For me, fungi should be left for small creatures to consume; humans can buy theirs at the supermarket or grow their own!

Anyhoo, I may be wrong but I think these boletes are the species Suillus luteus, also known as Slippery Jacks, a name that is probably derived from the viscous feel of their caps when wet. These were very slimy, and they fit the criteria listed in my guide book: growing under a pine tree, with yellow pores, and a yellowish stem with small brownish dots. They are edible … but don’t ask me where I found them.

Fungus: Ergot

05 Friday Sep 2025

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I’m sure most of you will have heard of ergot poisoning or, at the very least, some of the notable times in history when humans have felt its effects. The Salem witch trials, which took place in Massachusetts in 1692-93 and where over 200 people were accused of witchcraft and 20 were executed, are probably the most well known; the unfortunate ‘witches’ are now thought to have been suffering from a form of ergotism. Through researching this post, I’ve also learned that ‘severe ergot epidemics in France between 900 AD and 1300 AD killed between 20,000 to 50,000 people’, and that ‘Julius Caesar lost legions of soldiers to ergot poisoning during his campaigns in Gaul’. And these are just a few of the more well-known examples; ergotism has been affecting humans since our ancestors first began eating grains and cereals.

Ergot (Claviceps purpurea) is a fungal pathogen that grows on many cereal species, including wheat, rye and barley. When ingested by humans and animals, the toxins contained in the fungus cause ergotism, the effects of which can include convulsions, hallucinations, gangrenous limbs, and, in severe cases, even death. These days, cereal producers and government regulatory bodies are very much aware of the dangers of ergot, and have precautionary measures in place to reduce its presence in food and feed to an absolute minimum. This is excellent news, as 2025 seems to be a good year, in terms of climate and environmental conditions, for the growth of the ergot fungus, if my finds in local fields are anything to go by. The small dark horn-shaped masses you can see in my photos indicate that these plants are infected with ergot; the masses, which replace the grains in cereals and grasses, are called sclerotia. So, with the subject of today’s post, it’s a case of look and be fascinated but definitely don’t be tempted to consume.

Amongst many other places, you can read more about ergot on the UK website of the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board and, in the US, on the United States Forest Service agency website.

Fungus: Cercospora depazeoides

29 Friday Aug 2025

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Given our recent, seemingly never-ending high temperatures, I’ve been surprised to find fungi flourishing, though they’ve not been the mushroom-shaped life forms you might expect when you read the word fungi. Take today’s fungus, for example. I didn’t immediately realise these very distinctive marks on the leaves of an Elder tree (Sambucus sp.) were caused by a fungus.

These marks are caused by Cercospora depazeoides, and it seems the fungus can be quite destructive. According to the European Forest Pests website, this fungal pathogen leads to ‘premature leaf drop and reduced photosynthesis’. When the spots merge, dominating the leaf surface, they cause defoliation, which can ‘weaken the plant, impacting its growth and fruit production’. Fortunately for those who harvest the berries to make Elderberry cordial, according to iRecord, this fungus has thus far not been recorded in many locations in the UK.

Soapwort and smut

24 Sunday Aug 2025

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During a walk around Cardiff’s Bute Park last week, I spotted a wildflower growing alongside my path that I couldn’t ever recall seeing before. It had pink flowers and looked a lot like Red campion so I wondered if it might be a cultivated variety of campion that had escaped from someone’s garden.

A look through the appropriate section of my wildflower guide when I got home proved me half right and half wrong. It was definitely a member of the campion family but this was Soapwort (Saponaria officinalis), no garden escape but not native either. It’s classified as an archaeophyte, which means this extremely useful detergent-plant was introduced to Britain in ancient times, prior to 1500 AD.

A few snippets from Flora Britannica:

Simply rubbing a leaf between the fingers will produce a slight, slippery froth. Boiled in water, the plant produces a green lather with the power to lift grease and dirt, especially from fabrics. … due to the presence of saponins – chemicals which, like inorganic soaps, appear to ‘lubricate’ and absorb dirt particles.
… cultivated for laundering woollens in Syria … and in Britain employed as a soaping agent by medieval fullers … because vegetable saponins are so much gentler than soaps, Saponaria has been used much more recently for washing ancient tapestries … Victoria &Albert Museum it was last used for cleaning fragile fabrics in the 1970s. The National Trust have also used it, for bringing up the colours in antique curtains.

Now, the keen-eyed amongst you may have noticed something a little odd about the flowers in some of my photos; the centres of the flower heads look black. This is because many of the plants I found were suffering from anther smut, in this case caused by the fungus Microbotryum saponariae. The pollen in the flowers’ anthers has been replaced with fungal spores, meaning the plant is unable to reproduce. This may be a recent infestation as I found plenty of plants growing along the path as I walked further. I often see something similar on Red campion flowers, though that is caused by a different fungal species, Microbotryum silenes-dioicae. So, two for the price of one today: a fascinating plant and an equally fascinating fungus.

Rust on roses

25 Friday Apr 2025

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I haven’t seen many fungi lately but this blob of bright orange rust really stood out amongst the greenery of this Field rose. The two possible species that might have caused this spectacular sight, Phragmidium mucronatum and Phragmidium tuberculatum, can be tricky to separate so I haven’t tried. If you’re interested in reading a discussion on the subject, check out this link to the UK Fungi Forum.

False puffball

28 Friday Mar 2025

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It’s been a while since slime featured here but, as it’s Fungi Friday (yes, I know slime isn’t exactly a fungus) and I happened to spot some slime yesterday, slime it is for today’s post, folks.

This particularly slime doesn’t really look like your typical example, which is presumably why its common name is False puffball; its scientific name is Reticularia lycoperdon (also known as Enteridium lycoperdon). And I spotted it in rather an odd place, growing on a stump that must have been thrown up on to the outer Barrage rocks in Cardiff Bay during a particularly high tide. You can read more about these intriguing organisms and see examples of the various stages of their life cycle on the excellent NatureSpot website.

Velvet shanks and a Wych elm

14 Friday Feb 2025

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The tree where I found these lush Velvet shanks growing was the Wych elm where, in October 2021, I found my first ever Elm zigzag sawfly larvae (Aproceros leucopoda), the first of this invasive species to be recorded in Wales (see my blog post Zorro comes to Wales). Now, that tree and several other young Wych elms growing in the margins of this field are all dead, presumably as a result of another invasive species, the fungus that causes Dutch elm disease (Ophiostoma novo-ulmi).

The Elm zigzag sawflies have spread well beyond this field now so won’t be affected by the tree’s death, and, though, presumably, the Dutch elm disease fungus dies when its host tree has died, it will continue to spread as it’s carried to new trees by Elm bark beetles (Scolytus species).

Yet, as with all living organisms, the death of one brings life-giving opportunities for others. So, though dead, the Wych elm is now providing sustenance to invertebrates that thrive in decaying wood and to the lovely Velvet shanks (Flammulina velutipes) that are specialists in devouring standing dead wood. Some of the clumps of Velvet shanks had already completed their lifecycle and were themselves rotting away but, as you can see in my photos below, more were oozing from the cracks in the tree’s trunk and branches.