Tony Hardware's Fungi Finds

Tuesday, 2 June 2026

MAY 2026 - Uncommon to NEW species!! for the UK.

Well, May will go down as one of those months Field Mycologists like me will remember for a long time. Thanks to a misidentified asco in April, now sequenced became new for the UK as well as a Mollisia lookalike just a few kilometres from home, became another new genus and species for the UK also. Starting with something in the back garden this time found on a dead branch of Honeysuckle. Camarops tublina. 1st record for Gloucs. Back at Flisteridge woods with Richard Huggins on a decort. conifer branch I found ex-Nectria Cosmospora viridescens. 1st for Wilts/21 other records in UK. Also here and for my second time on a very burnt Betula branch Sistotremastrum suecicum, but still 7th rec. in UK! Growing on a resupinate Botryobasium aureum was Pyrenopeziza benesuada, noting yellowing under KOH at the tips of the paraphyses. Apparently a VU under the red list. Surprising, seen a few times, probably incorrect, here 1st Wiltshire. At my local patch Capel's Mill, a footpath goes north along the River Frome. This would herald an extraordinary find but first I collected Diaporthe decedens on a Corylus twig. The spores are almost uniquely 2-guttulate but centralised in each cell. A further walk and about to turn back (how often does this happen to me!) when I thought I would take one last look under a very old rotting log by a riverside pond. Here under a large moss covered Acer species I found what appeared to be a large discomycete, probably a Mollisia. After microscopy and consulting Hans-Otto Baral (German eminent mycologist in this class of fungi) it was almost easily detected as Peltigeromyces mollisioides. Only recently being identified in Europe. This would be a new genus and so species for the UK. I sent this for sequencing and intend to write this up in due course. The spores are incredible as being one of the smallest spores in the microfungi world of ascomycetes. 2.7 - 3.5 µm length!! Back home I was about to throw out a dying indoor plant but as it was Bamboo I always check for fungi, most do not. Here I found Eupropolella arundinariae on Dracaena sanderiana, or Twisted Lucky Bamboo from Waitrose! By invitation, I was asked to take part in Hartpury Univ's BioBlitz. Not a great time for basidiocarps but still managed a few, but at the start of my searching I found tucked under a pile of twigs a pulvinate type grey uninspiring myxomycete, which had me immediately baffled. After consulting out County Recorder John Holden he helped decipher this as being Diderma chondrioderma and would be 4th in England/13th UK record. So May was already good - more to come!! Also at Hartpury was Hymenoscypus repanda with few Gloucs. records, most I suspect are incorrect, this being submerged at the edge of a lake. One of the few genera that survive this way. On an Ash leaf was Hysterobrevium mori - 1st for Gloucs. A trip up towards the Severn, near Upper Frimilode village, the footpath offered up Phragmites to check. Here on dead stems I found Morenoina phragmites (7th UK rec.) my spores being a little larger than the literature but everything points to this species, or its new. Also on Common Reed was the anamorph state Myrothecium atroviride (5th UK). Remember, I am no miracle worker, it's just field mycologists just don't bother with the little things in life, but miss out on some of the biggest surprises in the fungi world. Again with Richard this time ending up at Ravensroost Woods (Wilts) on a discarded manure/grass rotting mound found Peziza fimeti. This would be 1st for Wilts. A short visit to Cirencester Woods under Fagus I found Sirobasidium brefeldianum and would be 5th UK record. The surface very unusually like multiple tiny cushions. Lastly, I go back to the reidentification from last month of incorrectly proposing Didymosphaeria oblitescens and with DNA now new for the UK in Valsaria spartii. Rarely seen even in Europe except around the Med. area. This has red/brown 2-celled verruculose spores and is quite different from other Diaporthe species as long as you know where to look. Thanks to David Harries for the sequencing work (Pembroke). This was on Rubus branch at a hotel ground in Barnstaple, Devon! Whew. June must be quieter than this.

Camarops tubulina

Cosmospora viridescens

Diaporthe decedens

Diderma chondrioderma

Eupropolella arundinariae

Hymenoscyphus repandus

Hysterobrevium mori

Morenoina phragmites

Myrothecium atroviride

Peltigeromyces mollisioides - NEW for UK

Peltigeromyces mollisioides

Peziza fimeti

Pyrenopeziza benesuada

Sirobasidium brefeldianum

Sistotremastrum siecicum

Sunday, 3 May 2026

APRIL - Uncommon to rare species recorded this month

This month includes a few virtually new species for the UK but are hyphomycetes, one of the least recorded classes of fungi. As the many species I have found over the years the excitement of finding something new evaporates quickly when you know not many people are looking for or recording these types of fungus. A pity really, as they can be quite easy sometimes to identify as they are normally very different from each other and have unique growth factors. So first up is one, this was found on dead needles of Douglas Fir in Cirencester Park. It appears that the local conservation foresters had been busy and had tried to take out most of the infected needle growth. One was Allantophomopsiella pseuodotsugae (try saying that after two whiskeys!) showing unusual conidiophores in blocks. 2nd record UK. Another would be Nothophaeocryptopus gaeumannii (try saying that after one whiskey!) again on needles (3rd UK record) followed by the reddening Rhabdocline pseudotsugae, (again 3rd record UK). Still with the same trees, then an resupinate in Aphanobasidium pseudotsugae was found the whole length under one cut down trunk showing sub-amygdaliform spores, something normally associated with Cortinarius or Hebeloma species. Few other Gloucs records. A visit to Westonbirt Arboretum on Pinus was a bluish/grey cottony resupinate became Arachnocrea stipata, but I saw no spiders. Interestingly this species has the unusual split spores of two identical triangles, easily disturbed when observing. Also here but on a woodchip/soil mix was a solitary Pluteus podospileus basidiocarp, with pleurocystidia and very tight free stem apex, unlike most others of this genus. A visit to Westridge Woods near Wooton-under-Edge for some time showed a recently devasted area of larch had been cut with wood debris everywhere. Good for me in some respects but hard to understand why this had happened. On the common resupinate Skeletocutis vulgaris I found lots of another hypho. Cheiromycella microscopia. 2nd Gloucs. Also on larch was Lachnellula resinaria with a few other records for Gloucs. I had found an unusual ascomycete in my back garden on dead mint stems in early February and it took me some time to work this out and now newly recognised as Fusarium sambucinum (was Gibberella pulicaris). This has unusual 1-3 septate spores with the excipulum bluing even in water. 1st Gloucs record. A trip to NW Devon was necessary to visit my sister in hospital and stayed at the Caesar's Inn, Barnstaple. No casino, so went looking for fungi in the delightful garden full of different tree types. On a single stem of Rubus fruticosus I eventually worked out Didymosphaeria oblitescens which has wonderful finely verrucose spores with a single heavy constricted septa. However, after obtaining a sequence for this material this turned out to be a FIRST for the UK in Valsaria spartii! Paper to follow. Also here was a hypho. in Endophragmia pinicola on Pinus needles. Also on these needles was Gremmenia infestans also known as Snow Mould, oddly given a common name with only this record in the UK. I must have the wrong species or something?! Also here was another hypho. Solicorynespora foveolata on Pseudosasa japonica (Bamboo). 4th Uk record. At Flisteridge Woods (Wilts) I found the miniscule discomycete Hyaloscypha quercicola - 1st for Wilts although recorded before in Gloucs a few times. Also Stomiopeltis betulae, 3rd for Wilts. Exploring a new woody glade at Bushy Grove near the River Severn and with oak growing in good numbers I found Mollisia olivascens on a rotten oak branch. This species has very hairy flanks and can almost be identified visually.