Tony Hardware's Fungi Finds: Bowithick bog and Penpont river

On a clear and beautiful early May day I went recording with the Cornwall Fungus Recording Group once more, this time at a place I have never been to, but one I will certainly return to. What a delight. Middle of nowhere but plenty of parking, unheard of in Cornwall for out of the way places to record. I was hoping to find something new here and wasn't disappointed as within meters of the cars and almost the first bog we looked into, Mitrula paludosa or Bog Beacon was found, with many more in the vicinity. Just after this and in my eagerness (stupidity, I think I heard someone say) to see more I went knee plus down into the bog and had to pull myself up across the surface. I had only just begun the day! Still it dried out soon and it took longer for my pride to return. Still alive, we continued across the moorland following the boggy area as we went. Looking closely at dung often brings surprises, this time showing a Cheilymenia species, probably fimicola after checking the septa. The common Phanaerochaete sordida resupinate was found by Pauline on gorse but as for most white bland resupinates this needed checking under the microscope. A nice fat black horse leech was found nearby - never seen a leech in the UK! Walking out onto the moor I found the common Stropharia semiglobata or Dung Roundhead. Polyporus brumalis or Winter Polypore was surviving the winter still up here on the moor and found on Hawthorn along with Turkeytail. It was on the return journey and heading for the all important lunch box, that I came across some very small agarics on a grassy bank near to the boggy area seen earlier. These looked like Entoloma at first but after much checking through microscopes afterwards by the group, Pauline had found an Arrhenia species. This caused some confusion as A. griseopallida is very similar to A. obscurata, the latter having a tapered up stem, whereas the former is the opposite. Other features suggested the former. Following extensive tests at Kew, this proved to be the rarer of the two and A. obscurata. 3rd for Cornwall. Moving on down past a line of willows over the start of the River Penpont we didn't find a great deal until Pauline went wading in the river and pulled out a stick with little 'orange blobs' on it. This was recognised as a rarely seen ascomycetes sps. Vibrissea truncorum, probably because not everyone goes wading in rivers! Probable 1st for Cornwall.

Mitrula paludosa - Bog Beacon

Mitrula paludosa spores