325/366 White saddles

20 Friday Nov 2020

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British fungi, Helvella crispa, saddle fungi, White saddle

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.

201120 white saddle (1)

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.

201120 white saddle (2)

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’.

318/366 Peeling oysterlings

13 Friday Nov 2020

Posted by sconzani in autumn, fungi

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British fungi, Crepidotus mollis, oysterling fungi, Peeling oysterling

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.

201113 peeling oysterling (2)

Gills: ‘radiating outwards; greyish brown with a reddish tint and mid-brown spore print’. Check.

201113 peeling oysterling (3)

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.

311/366 The bonnets are back

06 Friday Nov 2020

Posted by sconzani in autumn, fungi

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Bonnet fungi, Bonnet mushroom, British fungi, Grooved bonnet, Mycena polygramma

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.

201106 grooved bonnets (1)

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.

201106 grooved bonnets (2)

But the fungi were still there, living silently unseen beneath the surface, until now, when they are fruiting again.

201106 grooved bonnets (3)

And these gorgeous fungi are supporting other life – spot the millipede amongst the gills in my second photo.

201106 grooved bonnets (4)

304/366 Wild word: deliquesce

30 Friday Oct 2020

Posted by sconzani in autumn, fungi, molluscs

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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).

201030 shaggy inkcap (1)

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.

201030 shaggy inkcap (6)

297/366 Candlesnuff

23 Friday Oct 2020

Posted by sconzani in autumn, fungi, nature

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British fungi, Candlesnuff, Candlesnuff fungus, Xylaria hypoxylon

With our weather much wetter and temperatures not too cold, October should be a good month for spotting fungi but I haven’t been finding much during my daily meanders. So, it was good to spot a piece of wood with the early stages of Candlesnuff (Xylaira hypoxylon) fungi growing out of it.

201023 candlesnuff (1)

I’ve blogged about this lovely fungus before so to find out more about it, click on The right snuff, December 2016.

201023 candlesnuff (2)

288/366 Little Japanese umbrella

14 Wednesday Oct 2020

Posted by sconzani in autumn, fungi

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autumn fungi, British fungi, inkcap, Parasola plicatilis, Pleated inkcap

I didn’t know until I read the entry for the Pleated inkcap (Parasola plicatilis) on the First Nature website that this fungus is also known as the Little Japanese umbrella but it’s easy to see how its delicate pleated structure would suggest the comparison. These little beauties are a one-day wonder and you have to be up early to appreciate them at their best. Here, we have photos looking directly down at the cap, a side shot, and then looking up from ground level at the underside of the cap. A perfect tiny parasol!

201014 pleated inkcap (1) 201014 pleated inkcap (2) 201014 pleated inkcap (3)

195/366 An inkcap in the grass

13 Monday Jul 2020

Posted by sconzani in fungi, nature

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British fungi, fungi in grass, inkcap, mushroom

One thing about the rain, it brings out the fungi.

200713 inkcap (2)

This might be a Goldenhaired inkcap (Parasola auricoma), which can often be found growing on bark chips in gardens, or it could be a Pleated inkcap (Parasola plicatilis), which mostly grow in short grass, or it might also be a Bald inkcap (Parasola Leiocephala), which likes short grass and woodland edges. Though my specimen looks like it’s surrounded by grass, there were twigs, small branches and pieces of bark in amongst the grass, and woodland trees nearby, so the habitat doesn’t aid with identification.

200713 inkcap (1)

As I don’t own a microscope and don’t want to get in to the often complicated process of identifying fungi, I simply enjoyed seeing this little surprise that had popped up along my path.

77/366 Eyelash fungi

17 Tuesday Mar 2020

Posted by sconzani in fungi, nature

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British fungi, Cosmeston Lakes Country Park, Eyelash fungi, Scutellinia fungi, Scutellinia olivascens

As you can see from my photos, the aptly named Eyelash fungi have hair-like bristles around their outer edges.

200317 eyelash fungi (1)

These particular Eyelashes can currently be found in large numbers in the west paddock at Cosmeston Lakes Country Park, where I presume they are enjoying the soggy muddy conditions, though they are growing on banks and slightly raised areas rather than in the completely sodden soil of the flatter parts.

When compared to the Eyelash fungi I blogged about back in May 2016 (see ‘Fluttering their eyelashes’ here), these latest examples have much shorter lashes. They are probably one of the Scutellinia species – possibly Scutellinia olivascens – but there are many very similar species of Eyelash fungi and you need to examine them under a microscope to be able to identify them correctly.

200317 eyelash fungi (4)

56/366 Spots and splashes

25 Tuesday Feb 2020

Posted by sconzani in fungi, lichen, nature

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British fungi, British lichens, Common jellyspot, Cosmeston Lakes Country Park, Illosporiopsis christiansenii, lichenicolous fungus

Amidst all the greys and browns and dull greens of the wintertime natural world, there are still wonderful wee spots and splashes of colour to be found. These are some I found during today’s stomp around Cosmeston, a rather rapid stomp trying, unsuccessfully, to avoid the rain showers.

200225 lichen and fungi (1)

I’m not good at identifying lichens but I do love their fresh, bright yellow-greens, especially on the twigs and small branches that have recently blown down from the tree tops.

200225 lichen and fungi (4) 200225 lichen and fungi (5)

The tiny bursts of lollipop pink are Illosporiopsis christiansenii, a lichenicolous fungus (that’s a fungus which is parasitic on lichens, usually on Physcia tenella and sometimes on Xanthoria parietina).

And the pretty pops of orange, found on several fence posts, are Common Jellyspot fungus, Dacrymyces stillatus.

200225 lichen and fungi (8)

17/366 Starry soils

17 Friday Jan 2020

Posted by sconzani in fungi, nature

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British fungi, collared earthstar, earthstar, fungus, Geastrum triplex

I know we usually speak of starry skies rather than starry soils but, three years ago, when I still lived in Cardiff, I found this one small patch of dirt, ’neath towering conifers in a local cemetery, where the stars could be found emerging from the soil.

200117 earthstar (1)

These Collared earthstars are the reason for the name of this blog: they show how amazing things can be found in everyday places if we only look; they show how incredible Nature is; they inspired me to write this blog, to try to get people to open their eyes to the beauty our world has to offer, even ten minutes’ walk from home.

200117 earthstar (2)

This cemetery is no longer managed with wildlife in mind – it is overly neatened and tidied – so I was particularly delighted, during a recent walk, to find these earthstars had escaped the over enthusiast strimming and pruning and scraping and chopping of the council’s operatives. Fingers crossed they continue to thrive.

200117 earthstar (3)