Tag Archives: fungi foray

Wild Christmas, day 3

27 Thursday Dec 2018

Posted by in fungi, nature, walks, winter

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I’m currently taking part in the local Wildlife Trusts’ #7DaysofWildChristmas challenge. This ‘is a week-long challenge to do one wild thing a day from the 25th to the 31st of December’. For me a challenge like this is easy peasy ’cause I try to live my whole life as one long wild challenge but I like to support these initiatives to help to inspire other people to put more Nature and wildness in their lives. Believe me, in a world as crazy as ours currently is, you will feel better for it.

For today’s challenge I spent about four hours at Cardiff’s Cathays Cemetery, hunting for fungi to photograph (not forage) in both the old and new sections of the cemetery. I figured that, after all the rain we’ve had recently, I should be able to find one or two nice things. I wasn’t disappointed.

Fungi foray: Merthyr Mawr

08 Monday May 2017

Posted by in fungi, nature, parks, spring, walks

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Saturday dawned fine and mostly sunny, good news for most but not such good news for fungi enthusiasts, who are already bemoaning the recent lack of rain. Still, keen-eyed fungi fans can always find something and our Glamorgan Fungus Group has some of the keenest in ‘Eagle-eyes’ Emma. Though we were just a small group of six and a half, we enjoyed a splendid day searching the woodland areas of Merthyr Mawr National Nature Reserve, and our limited numbers were, in fact, a bonus, as we had amongst us the county recorder for Orthoptera (grasshoppers and related insects) and an experienced botanist, so we were able to enjoy, discuss and identify a broad range of flora and fauna. As expected, our fungi finds were limited but we finished the day with a very respectable total of 21 species and had a great time along the way.

Here are some of our finds: the rust Melampsora populnea on Dog’s mercury; another rust Kuehneola uredinis, on Bramble; Microbotryum silenes-dioicae, a smut that occurs on the anthers of Red campion flowers; another rust Melampsora epita var. epitea on Spindle; fungi enthusiasts inspecting the one group of cap fungi (‘real mushrooms’) found this day; the ‘real mushrooms’ that must remain unidentified as they were much eaten and turning gloopy; likely one of the Mollisia species of Disco fungi; Phellinus hippophaeicola on Sea buckthorn; Phylloporia ribis on Spindle; a rather old and faded Blushing bracket Daedaleopsis confragosa; a Puccinia species of rust on Common ragwort – this needs microscope work to positively ID; and the pimple-like growths of Dandelion wart Synchytrium taraxaci on one of the gazillions of Dandelion species, so Taraxacum officinale agg.

Draethen Fungi Foray update

12 Saturday Nov 2016

Posted by in 'Dedicated Naturalist' Project, fungi, nature

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When I posted about our ‘Walking with Mary’ fungi foray in Draethen Woodlands last Saturday, I said I would report back with our final species list. Just as Mary and her colleagues had walked these woods in both October and November, so did we, with a site recce on 19 October and then our group foray on 6 November, so this is actually the combined list for both walks. Mary had recorded more than 90 different species of fungi; our total is 79. Being optomistic, I think the lesser number can probably be attributed to our dry autumn weather this year rather than any species loss.

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Here are more photos of the fungi we found, followed by the full species list for any keen fungi fans out there. You can see details of the walk and Mary’s species lists on the Mary Gillham Archive Project website here.

Scientific name Common name
Agaricus sp.
Amanita sp. Possibly Death Cap Amanita phalloides
Amanita vaginata Grisette
Armillaria gallica Bulbous Honey Fungus
Armillaria mellea Honey Fungus
Ascocoryne sarcoides Purple Jellydisc
Auricularia auricula-judae Jelly ear
Bisporella citrina Lemon Disco
Bjerkandera adusta Smoky Bracket
Chlorociboria sp. Green elf cup
Clavaria vermicularis White Spindles
Collybia butyracea var. asema Butter cap
Collybia sp.
Coprinellus micaceus Glistening inkcap
Coprinus sp. Possibly Shaggy Inkcap
Coprinus sp. Possibly Common Inkcap
Cortinarius sp.
Crepidotus applanatus Flat oysterling
Crepidotus mollis Peeling oysterling
Cystolepiota seminuda
Daedaleopsis confragosa Blushing bracket
Daldinia concentrica King Alfred’s cakes
Diatrype disciformis Beech Barkspot
Exidia nucleata Crystal brain
Exidia sp. Either E. plana or E. glandulosa
Ganoderma sp. Either G. adspersum or G. applanatum
Gymnopus dryophilus Russet Toughshank
Hydnum sp. Possibly H. repandum Hedgehog Fungus
Hygrocybe conica Conical Wax-Cap
Hygrophorus discoxanthus Yellowing woodwax
Hygrophorus eburneus Ivory Woodwax
Hypholoma capnoides Conifer tuft
Hypholoma fasciculare Sulphur tuft
Hypholoma marginatum Snakeskin Brownie
Hypoxylon fragiforme Beech woodwart
Hypoxylon fuscum Hazel Woodwart
Kretzschmaria deusta Brittle cinder
Laccaria amethystina Amethyst deceiver
Lactarius aurantiacus Orange Milkcap
Leotia lubrica Jellybaby
Lepista sp. Possibly Lepista nuda Wood Blewitt
Lycogala sp. Orange slime mould
Lycoperdon excipuliforme Pestle puffball
Lycoperdon nigrescens Dusky puffball
Lycoperdon pyriforme Stump Puffball
Marasmius wynnei Pearly parachute
Mutinus caninus Dog stinkhorn
Mycena arcangeliana Angel’s bonnet
Mycena diosma
Mycena haematopus Burgundydrop bonnet
Mycena rosea Rosy bonnet
Mycena sp.
Mycena vitilis Snapping Bonnet
Oudemansiella mucida Porcelain Fungus
Phallus impudicus Stinkhorn
Pholiota squarrosa Shaggy Scalycap
Phragmidium bulbosum Rubus leaf rust fungus
Phragmidium violaceum Violet Bramble Rust
Piptoporus betulinus Birch polypore
Pluteus phlebophorus Wrinkled shield
Postia caesia Conifer blueing bracket
Postia sp. A crust fungus
Psathyrella sp. One of the Brittlestem fungi
Ramaria sp. Coral fungus
Rhodocollybia butyracea Butter cap
Rhytisma acerinum Sycamore Tarspot
Russula sp.
Sarea resinae
Scleroderma sp. Earthball
Stereum hirsutum Hairy curtain crust
Terana coerulea Cobalt crust
Thelephora terrestris Earth-Fan
Trametes gibbosa Lumpy Bracket
Trametes versicolor Turkey tail
Tricholoma terreum Grey Knight
Xylaria carpophila Beechmast Candlesnuff
Xylaria hypoxylon Candlesnuff
Xylaria longipes Dead Moll’s Fingers
Xylaria polymorpha Dead Man’s Fingers

‘Dedicated Naturalist’: Walking with Mary in Draethen Woodlands

06 Sunday Nov 2016

Posted by in 'Dedicated Naturalist' Project, autumn, fungi, nature, trees

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Today I joined my fellow members of the Mary Gillham Archive Project, my friends in the Glamorgan Fungus Club, and members of the local Wildlife Trust and Cardiff Naturalists’ Society to walk in the footsteps of Mary Gillham in Draethen Woodlands. And what a fabulous day it has been!

Mary visited these woods many times from the 1960s to the 1990s, sometimes with friend and fungi expert Roy Perry, sometimes with groups similar to ours, and they recorded over 90 different species of fungi during the months of October and November. Our aim today was to recreate Mary’s walks, to see how many fungi species we could find, and to compare those past records with ours.

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It’s been a dry autumn in South Wales so we weren’t sure how much fungi we would find but, turns out, fungi are plentiful and fruiting well under the leafy boughs of this beautiful woodland. From the lower car park our group of almost 50 people strolled along the metalled forestry road, venturing left and right amongst the tall beech trees, eyes peeled for fungi, and we were not disappointed.

From the obvious mushroom shapes of the wood-rotting Honey fungi and the shelf-like protrusions of various brackets to the less easy to spot black blobs of Dead Moll’s Fingers, the common fungi species were what we’d expected to see and were relatively easy to find. We were delighted to also find some unexpected treasures: sprinklings of the charmingly named Jellybabies, a wealth of Earthfans carpeting a large area and the delicate bonnets of various Mycena species.

We’ve still to collate and tally up our fungi finds, so I’ll report back in a couple of days with the full list and a few more photos. If you live in the area and want to do this walk for yourself, the details can be found here.

For the full story about the Mary Gillham Archive Project, check out our website,  and follow our progress on Facebook and on Twitter.

A Fungi-ful Friday

11 Sunday Sep 2016

Posted by in fungi, nature, parks

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Fifty shades of brown, a soupçon of purple and a smattering of red – that about sums up my Friday fungi foray around Cefn On, one of my local Cardiff parks. A friend had posted a few finds from his walk there the previous day on the Glamorgan Fungi page on Facebook so it looked like a sure bet and, although I get the train up there, it’s a nice long walk back through Coed-y-Felin woods, around Llanishen Reservoir, through Nant Fawr woodland and alongside Roath Lake – about 7 miles all up but almost entirely through woods, parks and green places, so perfect!
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After the recent rains and with temperatures still warm during the day but dropping now overnight, Cefn On was alive with fungi and I got lots of photographs. Unfortunately, fungi are notoriously difficult to identify. What does it smell like? What colour are the spores? How big / small / wide / tall was it? Was it slimy or dry? Where was it growing? These are just a few of the questions you need to ask. I do try to work out what I have found but some things are only identifiable through microscopic analysis so, these days, I mostly just enjoy looking at them and admiring their multitude of shapes and forms and habits and colours.

When we went down to the woods today …

15 Friday Apr 2016

Posted by in fungi, nature, nature photography

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Well, there weren’t any teddy bears in the Coed Ty Rhiw woods today but we did get lots of lovely surprises. Five friends and fellow members of the Glamorgan Fungi Club and I went on a foray, mostly looking for spring fungi but, as we had a ton of other wildlife expertise in our group, we were also drawn to birds and bugs, bees and butterflies.

Here’s a selection of our fungi finds: Piptoporus betulinus Birch polypore; Auricularia mesenterica Tripe Fungus; Daedaleopsis confragosa Blushing bracket; an unidentified crust fungus; Hypoxylon multiforme Birch woodwart; Terana caerulea Cobalt crust; Reticularia lycoperdon False puffball; Metatrichia floriformis – a slime mould; Lycogala sp. – another slime mould; Trametes versicolour Turkey tail and Xylaria hypoxylon Candlesnuff; Polyporus brumalis Winter Polypore; Trametes versicolour Turkey tail (lovely patterns on this one); Scutellinia scutellata Eyelash fungus; Armillaria mellea rhizomorphs Honey fungus bootlaces; and Coprinellus micaceus Glistening inkcap.