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Tag Archives: British fungi

Wrinkled peach

29 Friday Nov 2024

Posted by sconzani in fungi

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

British fungi, Elm tree, fungi on Elm, fungus, Rhodotus palmatus, Wrinkled peach

I was struggling to think of what I would blog about today so, for my daily walk, I headed to an area where I thought I should be able to find some fungi. And so it proved. In fact, much to my surprise and delight, I found today’s subject first, then went on to find two other relative rarities at other sites during my meander. This was a very good day for fungi!

241129 wrinkled peach (1)

Today’s fungus is Wrinkled peach (Rhodotus palmatus), still beautiful even though the five specimens I found were all a little past their best. They are perfectly named: their pale pinkish peachy colour is unmistakeable, as is the crinkled skin on their caps.

241129 wrinkled peach (2)

And, as they grow exclusively on Elm trees, which have been devastated by Dutch elm disease, these fungi are now quite a rarity so I was particularly lucky to spot them.

241129 wrinkled peach (3)

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Ballerinas and friends

22 Friday Nov 2024

Posted by sconzani in autumn, fungi

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Tags

Ballerina waxcap, British fungi, Cathays Cemetery, Clavaria fumosa, Clavulinopsis corniculata, Cuphophyllus virgineus, Meadow coral, Pink waxcap, Porpolomopsis calyptriformis, Smoky Spindles, Snowy waxcap

I do like to take my friends walking in all the best places so, when I caught up with my friend Sharon last week (Hi, Shar!), part of our time was spent wandering around Cardiff’s Cathays Cemetery. This might sound a bit morbid but the cemetery is one of the best places I know for fungi. Here are some of the delights we found …

241122 ballerina waxcap

My first Pink (Ballerina) waxcaps (Porpolomopsis calyptriformis) of the year

241122 snowy waxcap

And also my first Snowy waxcaps (Cuphophyllus virgineus)

241122 smoky spindles

There were several clumps of Smoky spindles (Clavaria fumosa), most just past their best

241122 meadow coral

And this clump of Meadow coral (Clavulinopsis corniculata) was a lovely find.

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Outstanding in their field

15 Friday Nov 2024

Posted by sconzani in fungi

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#FungiFriday, British fungi, Coprinus comatus, inkcaps, Shaggy inkcaps

At well over 12 inches, these must be the tallest Shaggy inkcaps (Coprinus comatus) I’ve ever seen, spotted growing in a nearby coastal field earlier this week. And just this morning, on social media, I read a post by a ranger at RSPB Lakenheath Fen saying he’d also seen his biggest there this week. Something about this year’s climatic conditions must be suiting them.

241115 shaggy inkcap

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More grassland gems

08 Friday Nov 2024

Posted by sconzani in autumn, fungi

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Tags

#FungiFriday, British fungi, British waxcaps, grassland fungi, grassland waxcaps, waxcaps

After a week when our skies have been grey and damp and low-cloudy due to something the weather forecasters have labelled ‘anti-cyclonic gloom’, and when voters’ choices have darkened the world around us even more, I feel the need for some colour for fungi Friday. So, here are more lovely waxcaps, photographed during another recent cemetery visit and at my local country park.

241108 waxcaps

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Disco for slugs

01 Friday Nov 2024

Posted by sconzani in autumn, fungi, molluscs

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Tags

British fungi, British molluscs, British slugs, fungi, Lemon disco, slug

Who knew slugs liked disco? Lemon disco, that is. The fungus, not the John Travolta – Saturday Night Fever – Bee Gees – strobing lights type of disco. This particular slug certainly did, as it had paused its slithering to taste the delicate little yellow cups.

241101 slug and lemon disco

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Inkcaps and bonnets

25 Friday Oct 2024

Posted by sconzani in autumn, fungi

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

autumn fungi, British fungi, Clustered bonnet, Common inkcap, Coprinopsis atramentaria, inkcap fungi, Mycena inclinata, Oak bonnet

For Fungi Friday, here are just a couple of the little flocks of fungi I’ve found during recent walks hither and yon.

241025 inkcaps

These, I think, are Common inkcaps (Coprinopsis atramentaria) that had sprung up beneath the trees near the Norwegian Church in Cardiff Bay. There one day, gone the next, as is usual with these transient fungi.

241025 clustered bonnet

And, as they were growing from an old fallen Oak tree in Cosmeston’s Cogan Wood, I think these are the appropriately name Clustered bonnet, also known as Oak bonnet, (Mycena inclinata).

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Cordyceps fungus

30 Friday Aug 2024

Posted by sconzani in fungi

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Tags

British fungi, Cordyceps, Cordyceps fungus on insect, fungus infecting insect

It was tiny and, at first glance, I thought it was one of those madly shaped egg sacks created by sputnik spiders (see The sputnik spider, 6 July 2017), but no. This is my first ever Cordyceps fungus, which is erupting from the body of an insect.

240830 cordyceps fungus (2)

In his publication Fascinated by Fungi, author Pat O’Reilly explains: ‘The Cordyceps mycelium colonises the living insect and mummifies it, keeping it alive just long enough to generate the biomass necessary to produce another Cordyceps … fruitbody.’ I discovered a very similar example to my find, with an excellent detailed explanation of the process, on the Project Noah website here.

240830 cordyceps fungus (1)

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Scutellinia

15 Friday Mar 2024

Posted by sconzani in fungi

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

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

I’ve never been able to work out which of the Scutellinia species the Eyelash fungi at Cosmeston Lakes Country Park belong to but it’s always a joy to spot these tiny orange-red gems in the grass.

240315 scutellinia

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Floating fungi

23 Friday Feb 2024

Posted by sconzani in fungi

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

British fungi, Flammulina velutipes, Velvet shanks

Can you see it?

240223 velvet shanks (1)

I don’t mean the rubbish – sadly, this is very typical of what comes floating down the River Ely in to Cardiff Bay and on out to the Bristol Channel, and thence to the Irish Sea. I’m talking about the two blobs of orange on the large log.

240223 velvet shanks (2)

Obviously I couldn’t get very close to these fungi but they are distinctive enough to identify with confidence – these are Velvet shanks (Flammulina velutipes). I can’t help but wonder where they will end up. It’s certainly a perfect example of how easily flora and fauna can spread around the country, the globe.

240223 velvet shanks (3)

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Stump puffballs

09 Friday Feb 2024

Posted by sconzani in fungi, winter

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Tags

British fungi, Lycoperdon pyriforme, puffballs, Stump puffballs

I haven’t found much fungi lately so it was nice, during a walk earlier this week, to spot this little colony of Stump puffballs (Lycoperdon pyriforme).

I had a chuckle at this explanation of its scientific name from the First Nature website:

The genus name Lycoperdon literally means ‘wolf’s flatulence’ and just begs the question who got close enough to a wolf and stayed there long enough to become an expert on such matters. For most of us, surely such an odour cannot be a practical diagnostic feature for identifying the Stump Puffball, Lycoperdon pyriforme.
Nothing at all to do with funeral pyres, the specific epithet pyriforme comes from Latin and simply means pear shaped.

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About me

sconzani

sconzani

I'm a writer and photographer; researcher and blogger; birder and nature lover; countryside rambler and city strider; volunteer and biodiversity recorder.

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