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Tag Archives: wood-rotting fungi

Tufts of sulphur

23 Friday Dec 2022

Posted by sconzani in fungi

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British fungi, Hypholoma fasciculare, Sulphur tuft, wood-rotting fungi

During my recent walks to marvel at the autumn colours of the Beautiful Beeches of Cwm George in Dinas Powys, I noticed that one of the Beech trees had, at some time in the past, succumbed to the ravages of time and weather and, where once a majestic giant stood tall, there was now a large, crumbling stump.

221223 sulphur tuft (1)

As well as a thick covering of fallen leaves, the greens of moss, ivy and a thin clump of grass, the stump was providing a home – and food – to fungi, a thriving colony of Sulphur tuft (Hypholoma fasciculare), one of our most common wood-rotters. I’m sure this is a fungus almost all my followers will have seen.

221223 sulphur tuft (2)

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Dead men rising

31 Monday Oct 2022

Posted by sconzani in autumn, fungi

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British fungi, Dead man's fingers, wood-rotting fungi, Xylaria polymorpha

‘Tis All Hallows’ Eve and deep in the wood, dead men are stirring, getting ready to rise up out of the earth …

221031 Dead Mans Fingers (2)

What could be more appropriate for Halloween than these Dead man’s fingers (Xylaria polymorpha), perfectly innocent, always spooky looking.

221031 Dead Mans Fingers (1)

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Dead man’s fingers

29 Friday Jan 2021

Posted by sconzani in fungi, nature

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British fungi, Dead man's fingers, fungi, wood-rotting fungi, Xylaria polymorpha

210129 dead man's fingers
Be afraid! A dead man is poking his rotting blackened fingers up from the leaf litter, reaching for the passing ankles of unwary walkers.

Nah, not really, though the ‘fingers’ – really the fungal fruiting bodies of the aptly named Dead man’s fingers (Xylaria polymorpha) – can look rather spooky when first encountered.

As the First Nature website explains, these wood-rotting fungi play an important environmental role:

they specialise in consuming neither the softish cellulose nor the much tougher lignin but rather the polysaccharides … As a result, when these and various other ascomycetous fungi have consumed what they can of a dead stump the remainder is a nutrient-rich soft mess that insects and other small creatures are able to feed upon.

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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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