Tony Hardware's Fungi Finds: February 2021 - uncommon/rare species found and all during lockdown locally.

Monday, 1 March 2021

February 2021 - uncommon/rare species found and all during lockdown locally.

February continued to be a productive month, with quite a few rare species being identified, mostly ascomycetes of course at this time of the year. The highlight was finding three new species for Cornwall under one tree - a Salix caprea or Goat Willow. The key find was Berlesiella nigerrima which overlaid another hidden Cryptospaeria ligniota (1st for UK!!! also). These were confirmed by Dr Paul Cannon at Kew, the latter found by him, probably one of the few that could!. Also found here was a Myxomycete Arcyria minuta, a pale salmon coloured body with large one-sided cogs on the capillitium. Lastly, and a fourth species also found and still rare find, so maybe will look harder under this type of tree in future. This was a asco. that looked like a small black cup fungus at first in dry form and within 30mins back home and hydrated was turned into something completely different. This is the aptly named Nitschkia collapsa which as the name suggests collapses in the centre when dry (see pics below). A short trip for the first time to Newhall Mill allowed me to find not only a beautiful Woodland Trust new location but also Arachnopiziza aurelia close to a stream. Also here was Lachnum apalum on Juncus. A walk around nearby Coronation Park found a tiered state of Ischoderma benzoninum as well as under and on Scots Pine the unusual asco. Cistella acuum. Another short walk around the block, I found a twig emerging from a garden and noticed the tiny white studying at home turned into a Cyphelloid Lachnella alboviolascens which was difficult to ID, but Peter Smith (BMS) gave helpful advice here. At the one small area left of Shell Woods, I found Mollisia ligni. So a very fruitful month, even in the middle of winter and lockdown!