Tony Hardware's Fungi Finds: Wilsey Downs Woods, Nr Camelford

Thought it might be a good idea to go somewhere where I have not heard that many people visit, and being a conifer plantation as well it can be very barren or fruitful. Thankfully, after recent rains had some interesting finds, especially Cortinarius, which evaded me all last year. Walking through what was heavy going due to grasslands being very boggy or tussock filled I came across a very small orange cup species on deer dung. This turned out to be the common Cheilymenia granulata. Deer and grass can mean ticks, so I was constantly checking in this terrain but found none. Time to move on to sensible timber moving tracks and alongside older growth allowed walk-in foraging under good light. There were many Mycena galopus or Milking Bonnets around, with a few var. candida's also showing their lovely pure white conical caps. Quite a few Lactarius turpis, or Ugly Milkcaps also on the needle litter although I find their dark green colouration quite colourful for any mushroom. Moving due east back towards the dog-walkers car park, (there were many who eyed me suspiciously as I didn't have one!) I came across Cortinarius city with three different species on show which were due to give me considerable headaches on returning home. The first, was a singular very slimy cap and stem. Through careful spore examination and macro checks I was able to differentiate this from a familiar species C. stillatitius. This became C. muccifluus, or Slimy Webcap (no surprise there) not very rare but seemed 2nd for county at available data to check. I then picked up the previously mentioned lookalike C. stillatitius also, although getting a little old I relied on macro details only for this, so isn't a definite record. Then along came another solo agaric in C. delibutus. This was also quite difficult to check as being a little mature for a yellow webcap, however, the spores were quite definitive and helped ID this one, considering a fresh example is very yellow. Several records for Cornwall so not exactly rare but a good find. Moving along the edge of the Silver Firs and keeping in moderate good light (I find moving too far inside darkened woodland decreases your chances of finding fungi) I came across a beautiful bracket type species - quite large around 36cms wide with a soft yellow porous covering on the edge and softer inner blackened main body. This was the only species in this genus being Phaeous schweinitzii, or Dyer's Mazegill. A single Russula although on needle litter was close to stacks of logs, which were probably old cut Silver Birch, as this was Russula betularum, or Birch Brittlegill. A single Phallus impudicus or Comm. Stinkhorn was putting up spores for the flies to disseminate. Lastly, before heading home I came across a first for me in Oyster Rollrim or Tapinella panuoides, with its large rust gills and bracket like attachment suggesting other kinds of fungi. So at this time of the year, a place to find unusual species perhaps, but no boletes which was disappointing.