It's been a funny year for fungi. Nothing was growing on the ground in the woods or on the grassland but the fungi growing out of dead and decaying wood are going bananas (I bet this is out of date now with the rain we've finally had in the last week). It's clear why, we've had a dry summer and autumn and dead and decaying wood holds water for longer than soil does. It got me thinking about what the difference between saproxylic and saprotrophic is. I realised I didn't know other than the former refers to how invertebrates consume the resource of dead and decaying wood and the latter, fungi. A bit of research shows that the difference seems to be in how the nutrients are processed. Internally for invertebrates and externally by the fungi. Anyway. Lots growing in and around trees at the moment including this young
Spectacular Rustgill. I tried to turn it into a rare webcap but fortunately Clare Blencowe had a look and passed it on to Nick Aplin. I should of realised as there were some open ones around the corner which were the biggest typical shaped mushrooms we saw all day on my fungi course at Ebernoe but I didn't connect the dots.
Here is
Yellow Shield at The Mens a few weeks back. Thanks again to Clare Blencowe and Mike Waterman from WWFRG for clinching the ID.
And here the much larger and commoner
Deer Shield also at the Mens. A quarter-pounder of a mushroom.
And from Knepp we have
Ganoderma resinaceum. Unusually for a
Ganorderma, the cap was slightly squidgy and yielded slightly upon compression .
Back to Ebernoe and my course last week and moving away from the trees. We spotted these
Lilac Fibrecaps in the churchyard at Ebernoe. I was surprised to see I'd seen this species before but I had no memory of it, I think it must have been a washed out specimen as this was a right little stunner.
We had a look at the cricket pitch too and added a few waxcaps but very low numbers compared to last year. We did find a ring of these odd 'foamy' mushrooms. Quite like the texture of those shrimp sweets you used to get and not waxcap like at all. Any ideas?
Last Sunday I went to Brookwood Cemetery in Surrey with the WWFRG again but this time I took Bryony in addition to meeting up with Tony and Shaun. We found a wealth of fungi that day but none were as showy as the HUGE (sorry Artist Formerly Known as Prince, the similarities stop there) the Prince or Agaricus augustus as it prefers to be known these days. Always wanted to see this beast of a mushroom.
I was amazed at how rich the site was and it wasn't long before we found the Snaketongue Trufflecub, a Cordyceps species that parasitises False Truffles! Such strange looking things.
In a matter of minutes Bryony got me a tick! Here is Lactarius subumbonatus.
And this Tricholoma batschii is found here and only two other sites in the country!
But it was the Cedarwood Waxcap that I was perhaps most excited about seeing, or should I say smelling! Waxcaps have been so fantastic this autumn that they have become my favourite fungi family of the year! It smells of Russian leather or lead pencils, both smells that I have no experience with but I can tell you the smell is quite distinct. It makes me think, what will the books state that fungi smell like in another generation or two? Smells strongly of chai latte or an iPhone perhaps.
We also found a couple of interesting Amanitas. This Jewelled Amanita was a looker...
And Bryony found this specimen that Dick Alder hasn't been able to identify as it might not have opened up enough. I was hoping it was going to be Warted Amanita but it looks like we might have to let this one go. A huge thanks again to Dick and the WWFRG, I would be very lost with fungi without their guidance so I am very grateful for these field trips. Now, I'm only 18 species away from 6000.
Posts
