Tony Hardware's Fungi Finds: Pencarrow Woods, Nr Wadebridge, Cornwall

Pencarrow Woods, owned by the Forestry Comm. always seems to come up with something different and today was no exception. I started walking up the northern footpath and kept going this time which took me into darker more intense woodland, something I prefer than sparse trees and leaf litter. Just after thinking was I astute in coming out today I was hit by hailfall (hardly a storm) which mostly bounced off me and with the aid of a single Holly bush I survived! On logs by the pathway I found a common resupinate Sleletocutis vulgaris, now known as Sidera v. Nearby, a pile of wet and cut conifer logs had a very nice cluster of bracket fungi which turned out to be Ischnoderma benzoinum, new for me, and in good condition. My 1000x eyepiece on my microscope is working overtime these days and with the help of sophisticated reference books, experinced colleagues from the Cornwall Fungus Recording Group* my life is just a little easier in helping pinpoint many species of brackets and resupinates to species. Also nearby I came across the very white now called Xylodon sambuci, or Elder Whitewash, fairly common but unexpected. Towards the end of the walk I descended down into the main forest track and checking out log piles, fortunately common, I spotted a beautiful crust type bracket, being lemon like in colour and for a moment I thought smelt like one as well. Perhaps this was mind over nose, as it turned out after checking the spores to be Trametes ochracea. Again, new to me - not uncommon but not often recorded. Lastly, headed out of the site, I again spotted a large log pile and on closer inspection there appeared a very glossy pliable bracket, with a smaller attachment. With the help of only a few spores I could muster, this turned out to be Ganoderma pfifferi, uncommon but seen before. A stunning bracket, and when dried later showed the concentric circles expected not seen here in the photo. Lastly, I spotted a snowball, just one, lingering on the end of a conifer log. This was either a snowball, a white blob or a slime mould called Retyicularia lycoperdon. First time again for me, and blob or not, it was very interesting to see illuminating the dark forest.
* See our new website at: www.cornwallfungusrg.com