The Lyons Share

This is Pipe Club, and I've been waiting years to see this again just so I can write a blog with this title. Indulge me.

"The first rule of Pipe Club is: You do not talk about Pipe Club. The second rule of Pipe Club is: You do not talk about Pipe Club. Third rule of Pipe Club: Someone yells stop, goes limp, taps out, the recording session is over. Fourth rule: only two guys to a specimen. Fifth rule: one identification at a time, fellas. Sixth rule: wear shirts, wear shoes. Seventh rule: Photo shoots will go on as long as they have to. And the eighth and final rule: If this is your first day at Pipe Club, you have to find a rare fungus".

(This is either going to make NO sense to you, or if you seen the film/read the book will at best be mildly amusing. Hey, I like my incongruous natural history/popular culture references and it's my blog, OK?).

Anyways, for the first time since last May, I've been out with the WWFRG to Whithurst Park where we mopped up and I added 27 new fungi to my list. I was very pleased to see that my old friend Shaun Pryor has become an active member of the group and we had a good catch up. Shaun has literally just signed up to Pan-species Listing and is attempting something no one else has: he is starting completely from scratch! You can follow Shaun's progress here. Anyway, Whithurst Park. Fungi have some pretty bonkers common names and Pipe Club has always made me chuckle. It's also almost exactly the same colour and texture as Morph...

Perhaps the most ridiculous name of the day was Elastic Saddle, a new one for me and quite an uncommon species. I think it kinda looks like a fortune cookie.

Other new species today included these tiny Twig Parachutes growing on a bramble stem.

And this Peeling Oysterling. 

As per usual though, Magpie Inkcaps stole the show.

A big thank you to all the people at the WWFRG for sharing their incredible wealth of knowledge. Shaun and I then carried on to Ebernoe Cricket Pitch and there were even more waxcaps there this week than last. With a little help, we are fairly sure we saw nine species, including two new ones for me, these huge Splendid Waxcaps.

And the strongly honey-scented Honey Waxcap. It is impossible to take a photo of a fungus at Ebernoe Cricket Pitch without it being photo-bombed by Chamomile leaves!

And a single Orange Grisette was up again too.