Bountiful Ground-ivy

15 Saturday Nov 2025

Posted by sconzani in fungi, insects, leaves, plants

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case-bearing moth larva on Ground-ivy, Coleophora albitarsella, galls on Ground-ivy, Ground-ivy, Puccinia glechomatis, Rondaniola bursaria, rust on Ground-ivy

When the weather’s wet, which it often has been of late, I tend to focus more on looking for small things when out walking. This is partly because the larger creatures, like birds, tend to prefer taking shelter as much as we humans do but also because I don’t want to get my good camera wet and my small camera, the one I use for close-up shots, is waterproof. Monday was one such day and, when I stooped to pat a random black cat that appeared out of nowhere, I noticed how marked and mottled were the leaves of the Ground-ivy the cat was sitting next to. So, I investigated.

And what a bountiful patch of Ground-ivy it was. Firstly, I couldn’t help but notice how many of the leaves were covered with the pustules of the rust fungus Puccinia glechomatis.

Then I discovered that many of the leaves also had small bumps on them, galls caused by the miniscule mite Rondaniola bursaria.

And, perhaps best of all, while investigating the rust and the galls, I also spotted a single tiny dark case sticking up from one leaf, the self-constructed home of a larva of the moth Coleophora albitarsella. And, with that, the rain starting coming down a little too heavily for comfort so both the cat and I headed for home.

Orange peel fungus

14 Friday Nov 2025

Posted by sconzani in autumn, fungi

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Aleuria aurantia, autumn colour, British fungi, cup fungi, Orange peel, Orange peel fungus

Orange peel (Aleuria aurantia) is a fungus I’ve not seen very often, despite it being officially classified as common. So, when, on a very grey, often drizzly day, I spotted a scattering of something bright orange on the ground in front of me, I initially thought some litter bug had thrown away the remains of their fruit. But no, this was the real thing, and there was more of it than I’d ever seen before.

My guide book says this fungus grows alongside paths and disturbed forest tracks, which is exactly where I found it, alongside a meandering path at the edge of the woodland in one of Cardiff’s parks.

Though it doesn’t look much like it in these photos, Orange peel is a cup fungus. The exterior of the cup is a paler shade of orange-beige and covered with fine down, whereas the interior is, as you can see, a vibrant orange.

The Orange peel I found had become wavy and twisted with age, and had been munched around the edges, probably by snails and slugs, but it was still a stunning sight.

Coral in the grass

07 Friday Nov 2025

Posted by sconzani in autumn, fungi

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British fungi, CHEG fungi groups, CHEGD fungi groups, Clavulinopsis corniculata, coral fungi, grassland fungi, Meadow coral

The clubs and corals, properly known as the Clavariacae, come in many shapes and colours; some are small, simple and singular, resembling worms standing upright in the grass, while others form in multi-branching clumps that really do resemble the corals you can find growing under the sea.

Today’s offerings slot somewhere in between the two, sometimes growing as individual stems but mostly in loose clumps of multi-branched stems that divide, like antlers, near the stem tops. Standing between 4 and 8cm tall, these lovely little yellow fungi are Meadow coral (Clavulinopsis corniculata).

Clavarioid fungi are usually found growing in unimproved grasslands and are one of the 4 (or 5) groups used to assess the conservation value of grasslands; the CHEG (or CHEGD) system assigns a value to the number of species of each of the fungal groups found at particular location (see this page on Wikipedia for a more detailed, though still simple explanation).

I found these examples of Meadow coral growing on a road verge that, presumably, was once grassland before houses and roads, a supermarket, a petrol station and a restaurant, and, of course, the ubiquitous car parks were built in the area.

When I spotted them, I was actually looking for the Hairy earthtongue fungi (Trichoglossum hirsutum, another of the CHEG/CHEGD fungi) I’ve found previously at this location. My disappointment at not finding any of those turned quickly to delight when I spotted the Meadow coral, which I don’t often find in my local area.

Ghostly fungi

31 Friday Oct 2025

Posted by sconzani in autumn, fungi

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British fungi, Helvella crispa, saddle fungi, White saddle

‘Tis All Hallows’ Eve and all round the globe
the spirits are rising to roam and to probe,
to spook and to scare,
while you wonder ‘Who’s there?’

With their white colour and partial resemblance to the classic ‘white sheet over the head with holes for eyes’ ghost imitation, these fungi I found on Wednesday in a local park seem particularly appropriate for Halloween. These are White saddle (Helvella crispa), fungi that grow at this time of year in damp soil in deciduous woodland, often alongside paths, which is exactly where I found these.

Pretty in Porcelain

29 Wednesday Oct 2025

Posted by sconzani in autumn, fungi

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Beech fungi, British fungi, fungi on Beech, Oudemansiella mucida, Porcelain Fungus

It’s been ages since I’ve seen Porcelain fungus (Oudemansiella mucida) so, though it was a bit sad to see an enormous old Beech tree had lost one of its huge branches, it was a real treat for me to see tiny bulb-shaped fungi emerging all over the wood.

There were hundreds of them, and I’ve just read on the First Nature website that this is due to the fact that ‘Oudemansiella mucida releases a powerful fungicide that deters or even annihilates competitors’, giving Porcelain fungus exclusive access to the nutrients of the fallen Beech.

Porcelain fungus is found exclusively on Beech, usually on dead or dying fallen branches on the ground but sometimes on dead branches high up in the canopy of an old tree.

The mucida in its scientific name refers to the slimy mucus that covers the upper sides of the caps of this fungus. And, though the idea of mucus might give a negative impression, these are stunning fungi, especially when the fruiting bodies are fully open. Their pure white colour and the translucence of their caps is where the common name Porcelain comes from.

Fungi: Black bulgar

24 Friday Oct 2025

Posted by sconzani in autumn, fungi, winter

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autumn fungi, Black bulgar, British fungi, Bulgaria inquinans, winter fungi

I went looking for Fly agaric, the mushroom everyone recognises but which is surprisingly uncommon where I live; I found none but, almost immediately on arrival at north Cardiff’s Cefn Onn Park, I did spot this large log covered in small black button-like fungi.

These are the fruit of the fungus Black bulgar (Bulgaria inquinans), also known as Rubber buttons and Bachelor’s buttons. According to the First Nature website, they are known as Black Jelly Drops or Poor Man’s Licorice in the United States, though the site also cautions readers not to be fooled by those names – these fungi are not edible and may, indeed, be toxic.

As you can see in the photo above, the fruit bodies look a bit like short tacks; they start out flat on top but come to resemble little cups. The outer surface is, initially, brown and scaly looking but, as they age, they become black, blobby when wet, but tougher and rubbery when dry. Black bulgar is described as common, and can be seen, mostly on fallen Oaks but also on a few other tree species, from autumn through to spring.

Waxcaps, but fleeting

22 Wednesday Oct 2025

Posted by sconzani in autumn, fungi

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autumn colour, British fungi, British waxcaps, Cathays Cemetery fungi, waxcap fungi, waxcaps

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

Posted by sconzani in autumn, fungi

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autumn colour, autumn fungi, British fungi, fungi on wood, Plums and custard, Tricholomopsis rutilans

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

Posted by sconzani in autumn, fungi

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autumn fungi, British fungi, British waxcaps, Date waxcap, Date-coloured waxcap, Hygrocybe spadicea, rare waxcaps, waxcaps

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

Posted by sconzani in autumn, fungi

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#FungiFriday, boletes, boletes under pine trees, British boletes, British fungi, Slippery jack, Suillus luteus

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.