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.
20 Friday Nov 2020
I was checking fallen leaves in a woodland clearing when I noticed something white poking through the leaves, a lucky break as it’s easy to miss these lovely little fungi. I had to clear away leaves to get these photos, but then mostly covered them up again.
These are typical examples of White saddle (Helvella crispa), one of several species of ‘saddle’ fungi you can find in woodlands, these particular saddles growing most often where there are Beech trees.
According to the First Nature website, ‘Helvella is an ancient term for an aromatic herb. The specific epithet crispa comes from Latin and means curled or wrinkled – a reference to the contorted cap or saddle’.
13 Friday Nov 2020
Oyster and oysterling fungi can be difficult to identify but I’m fairly sure these are Peeling oysterlings (Crepidotus mollis).
Habitat: ‘usually grouped on decayed wood of deciduous trees, especially Ash and Beech.’ Check.
Gills: ‘radiating outwards; greyish brown with a reddish tint and mid-brown spore print’. Check.
Cap: ‘flat, oyster-shaped or elongated and laterally attached to substrate’. And the clincher: ‘a peelable cap cuticle’. Check.
Information from my trusty Collins Complete Guide to British Mushrooms & Toadstools, Paul Sterry & Barry Hughes, Collins, London, 2009.
06 Friday Nov 2020
It’s almost a year since I published the post Groovy bonnets (on 27 November 2019), about a troop of Grooved bonnet fungi (Mycena polygramma) that was growing on a tree in the green space around a local church.
Since then, sadly, the tree they were growing on has mostly gone, blown down in one of our winter storms early this year – now, only the stump remains.
But the fungi were still there, living silently unseen beneath the surface, until now, when they are fruiting again.
And these gorgeous fungi are supporting other life – spot the millipede amongst the gills in my second photo.
30 Friday Oct 2020
Tags
British fungi, Coprinus comatus, deliquesce, deliquescence, inkcap fungus, inkcaps, Shaggy inkcap, slug, slug eating fungus
Deliquesce: verb; (of organic matter) become liquid, typically during decomposition. Mid 18th century from Latin deliquescere ‘dissolve’, from de- ‘down’ + liquescere ‘become liquid’ (Oxford Dictionary).
These Shaggy inkcaps (Coprinus comatus) may look sturdy and robust but, like all inkcaps and many other species of fungi, they only last a few days, sometimes as little as 24 hours, before turning into a rather disgusting-looking liquid mush, as shown by the specimen below. If you want to read more about the how and why of that process, about the inkcaps’ ‘habit of destroying themselves with their own enzymes’, check out The Dish on Deliquescence in Coprinus Species by Jonathan Landsman on the Cornell Mushroom blog.
Many humans may not know that inkcaps quickly deliquesce but slugs do. This slimy beastie was digging in to a Shaggy inkcap delicacy before the fungus had a chance to digest itself.
earthstar 
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