Tony Hardware's Fungi Finds: Hawkes Wood, Wadebridge, Cornwall - 27th November 2018/10th and 19th December

Living locally I decided to spend another few hours at this excellent site of mostly deciduous ancient woodland and it paid off for sure once again. According to BMS records to date and available I probably found a 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th for Cornwall species all in the space of 400 meters. The rains had subsided and I was pleased to enter a very wet woodland and stream side path. This site is often very wet or damp especially by the stream as you can imagine and fungus just keeps on popping up. My best find of the afternoon was a new species for Cornwall, in fact probably South West of England, according to records I can access. I was steadily inching my way along the main path when a tiny group of tooth like fungi was erupting from within a Oak tree, but three foot off the ground and on a dead or dying substrate. Close up these look remarkable and appear like miniature tooth type fungi. Named Phleogena faginea or aptly called English name Fenugreek Stalkball. Other gems included a single Tricholoma lascivum (Aromatic Knight) hiding behind and at the base of an oak tree (4th), a single splendid, also small for a Milkcap and unusual in woodland Lactarious lacunarum (2nd), found at the base of a very wet boot soggy hollow, which helped the ID as normally found in bogs. Along with a first for me in Stropholoma aurantiacum or Redlead Roundhead found in large clusters at the top of the reserve on the access road, so not strictly within the reserve and on a large old wood-chip pile. A further visit a week later resulting in finding an unusual slime mould in Badhamia foliicola under a old beech log, only a very small patch but following spore ID, (something I can now achieve with my superdooper new microscope!) and extensive cross-checks indicates this species which again would be a 1st for Cornwall. Following a visit due to indoor fever on 19th for a short time, I came across a small Collybia type sps. in the leaf litter. As there wasn't much else around I thought I should check and glad I did as this was one of the smallest Lactarius sps you can find and after checking spores et al, turned out to be 2nd for Cornwall in Lactarius obscuratus! To think I could have stayed in and listened to the Archer's.