The Lyons Share

"This is a snakeskin jacket! And for me it's a symbol of my individuality, and my belief...in personal freedom". Sailor, Wild at Heart.

I suspect only the hardcore David Lynch fans will have even the remotest clue as to what I am wittering on about here. Anyways, last week I ran my 'Introduction to Fungi' course at Ebernoe for the second year. It was another great day, it aims to show people that although limited, you can still do quite a bit of mycology in the field before you end up on a spore drive (see what I did there?). So our aim was to beat the 53 or so species were recorded last year and maybe a get a species new to Ebernoe like the Parasitic Bolete we recorded last year. We succeeded on the former but failed on the latter. It's hard to get a new species of fungi at Ebernoe, especially one identifiable in the field when 963 species have already been recorded there. Anyway the highlight was this Snakeskin Grisette. Only the second time I have seen this, the first being on the 1000 species challenge with Dave Green and that was at 2.00 am and I hardly had time to stop and appreciate it. Well done to the attendee who found the specimen!

We picked up some Heath Waxcaps in Leconfield Glade, the first record for the reserve for over 20 years so that was probably the most exciting record. Other highlights included Sinuous, Trumpet and regular Chanterelles, Sulphur Knight, Fluted Bird's-nest Fungi, White Saddle, Horn of Plenty, Magpie Inkcap, Pink Waxcap and a very VERY sloppy Tiered Tooth and a few little extras at the end on Ebernoe Cricket Pitch...

The same attended that found the Snakeskin Grisette found this freaky little oddity that after some discussion with Martin Allison, we think is a young Mosaic Puffball. So, we will be running the course again next year. If you fancy a romp around Ebernoe looking for some of our most charismatic fungi, then please come along.