22 Friday Jan 2021
This colony of Hairy curtain crust (Stereum hirsutum) was making an impressive display on a fallen tree I passed today.
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.
The upper surface is hairy (hence the epithet hirsutum), and the lower surface smooth, with no obvious pores.
15 Friday Jan 2021
Tags
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!
Melampsora euphorbiae on Petty spurge (Euphorbia peplus)
Puccinia lagenophorae on Groundsel (Senecio vulgaris)
Puccinia smyrnii on Alexanders (Smyrnium olusatrum)
12 Tuesday Jan 2021
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.
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.
08 Friday Jan 2021
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.
I explained more about these two fungi in my blog Golden ears and Yellow brains, February 2017.
29 Tuesday Dec 2020
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!
23 Wednesday Dec 2020
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.
18 Friday Dec 2020
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.
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.
11 Friday Dec 2020
Tags
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).
09 Wednesday Dec 2020
Do you see the small stick sitting on top of the big fallen branch, in the centre left of the photo? Well, that stick was the absolute highlight of my seven-and-a-half-mile walk yesterday.
And below you can see why. This is the fungus Cobalt crust (Terana caerulea), an incredible colour to find growing on a stick in the middle of a now mostly brown woodland.
This is the first time I’ve found Cobalt crust locally and I was/am just so excited to see it. I might just have to go back next week for another look (and, also, to get photos of the red elfcups that were just beginning to appear nearby).
27 Friday Nov 2020
Redlead roundhead – try saying that name several times at speed – a real tongue-twister! Its scientific name is also a bit of a mouthful: Leratiomyces ceres, the ceres epithet a reference to the red of its cap, though I’ve found they’re more of a rusty red than cerise.
This fungus is an ‘alien from Australia’ that favours wood chip, particularly on sandy soil, and it owes its spreading distribution to the way many park departments cover areas of ‘gardens’ with chippings of trees from wide and varied sources. I found this particular specimen on the Cardiff Bay Barrage, growing on bits of wood washed down the Rivers Ely and Taff during flooding events.
earthstar 
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