Tony Hardware's Fungi Finds: 2022

Friday, 2 December 2022

NOVEMBER 2022 - 10 new species for Gloucs.!! ... and other uncommon to rare species identified.

And I thought October was good - this month the Fungi Fairies (and Elves!) were on my side as I found and identified TEN new species for Gloucs., along with quite a few nearly new also making 22 species to discuss here this month. Towards the end of the month the agarics were disappearing fast but new fungi kept appearing in meadows, low grassy patches, etc., almost anywhere.

Going through these alphabetically I will start with a tiny clustered ascomycete found on an ex-bonfire site, extensive growth pattern shows a golden pigmentation in the swollen tips of the paraphyses and spores showing 2-guttulate content. This is Anthracobia macrocystis and found in Silk Woods near Tetbury. Few records in Gloucs. While visiting Minchinhampton Common at the beginning of the month I was aware that the Helianthemum mounds are very productive here and sure enough two turned up in a solitary state. The first turned into Cortinarius rubicosus, new for Gloucs and few other UK records. The gills are distinctly distant, KOH neg. on the cap and matching spores - very important in Cortinarius. Just a few metres away an Inocybe species was growing atop another mound, this one even better as became Inocybe slendens var. splendens, the rarer species than most which tend to be var. phaeoleuca. 2nd rec for Gloucs. Back to Silk Wood and this time in a patch of partially removed woody debris and woodchip from a variety of trees on the ground was Crepidotus autochthonus - rarely found but still only 4th for the County. In sheep fields NW of the Ebworth Estate I am surveying this year, I found a diminutive Coprinopsis species on dung. This turned out to be C. stercorea after careful studies under the microscope and the veil structure. New for Gloucs. In the same fields and day, also on dung I found the very tiny orange/yellow asco in Cheilymenia pulcherrima - new for County and also most of Southern England. Few records elsewhere. This takes some finding as being so small unless you study a lot of dung closely, then it will be missed. Fortunately, there was no one else around so I wouldn't look strange to many, mostly always dog walkers. I am thinking of taking around with me a large toy dog, just sits there looking at me, perhaps robotic and twitch its tail occasionally, then most other folk I meet wouldn't give me such suspicious looks (even though I look suspicious). At one of my favourite haunts at Cirencester Park, in and around the roads to the Polo Club (I couldn't play today as I left my mallet and horse at home and wasn't selected anyway!) walking through grasslands close to the forest edge I came across a very large Entoloma species. This turned out to be E. turbidum - new for the County. Entolomas can be very difficult to ID, most having no cystidia on the gill edge and not a lot more to go on other than the spores. But with careful examination, the spores are the clues. There are five types in shape - get this right and the macro description then you are not far off the identification. Clamps on the basidia also helps, if you can find them! Large allantoid spores, longitudinal basidia, IKI- and spores size proved a smooth grey looking resupinate (looks like 50 others) proved to be Exidiopsis calcea. This being 4th for Gloucs, but after my 2/3rd before! Odd. Galerina sideroides as found in Cirencester Park and at the same location Helvella crispa - included here as just really looking quite wonderful in this photo. Not uncommon. Also here an Inocybe posterula was located under Picea. Note I check all three cystidia types in Inocybes carefully before coming to a conclusion. 1st for Gloucs. Another Inocybe was found back in Ebworth, this one with Fagus and became I. margaritspora. Exploring the grasslands at Cranham Common would be new for me, but I found Lactarius evosmus (I had already located this species on Minchinhampton last year). Appearance alone should be enough to identify this species but to make sure then taste the milk but it will make your tongue sore for a few days - but you know you have the right species!! Very acrid. Here also on Cow dung I identified Paneolus subfirmus - looking like many other psathyrella species, but the microscope doesn't lie. 1st for the County. Back in Cir. Park near a fallen Fagus tree, growing in leaf litter was a fungus that blackens, especially on the gills with the slightest touch. This was Lyophyllum leucophaeatum - 1st for Gloucs and all West Midlands. Back to Ebworth, this time in the SW beech woods where I didn't find a great deal except one species growing off a fallen log. This had quite a conspicuous macro and was Marasmiellus foetidus. Normally foul smelling, well I didn't find out as looking was good enough (plus the microscopy of course). 1st for Gloucs and only 9th record in UK. At a wonderful small nature sanctuary just off the main Stroud road and all within 20 metres of each other I first found Lyophyllum fumosum (few records), then a large cluster of orangey/yellow/brown agarics growing on a large woodchip pile, probably mostly from broadleaf trees. This turned out to be the very rare Pholiota lucifera and new for the County and most of Central and SE England. Nearby, was the uncommon Psathyrella noli-tangere, looking nothing like a Psathyrella! Lastly, (still more) was the uncommon coral fungi Phaeoclavulina flaccida (was Ramaria) and an even more unusual jelly fungi Pseudohydum gelatinosum - not uncommon (new to me) just good to see! Finally I also picked up here the tiny spindle type fungus Pterula gracilis. Phew ... time for some pics.

Athracobia macrocystis

Cheilymenia pulcherrima

Cheilymenia pulcherrima on Sheep dung

Coprinopsis stercorea veil

Coprinopsis stercorea

Cortinarius rubicosus on Helianthemum

Cortinarius rubicosus spores

Crepidotus autochthonus

Entoloma turbidum

Exidiopsis calcea

Galerina sideroides

Helvella crispa

Inocybe margaritspora

Inocybe posterula

Inocybe splendens var. splendens caulo.

Inocybe splendens var. splendens

Lactarius evosmus

Lyophyllum fumosum

Lyophyllum leucophaeatum

Marasmiellus foetidus

Marasmiellus foetidus spores

Paneolus subfirmus cheilo.

Paneolus subfirmus

Phaeoclavulina flaccida

Pholiota lucifera

Pholiota lucifera cheilo.

Pholiota lucifera stem

Psathyrella noli-tangere

Psathyrella noli-tangere cheilo.

Pseudohydnum gelatinosum

Pterula gracilis

Wednesday, 2 November 2022

OCTOBER 2022 - Uncommon to Rare species this month

October is normally the best month of the year for fungi and after a long dry spell it seemed that all fungi had waited long enough and it was time to appear. Lots of uncommon species were found along with a few quite rare species inc. two Cortinarius and an Inocybe or three! No particular order, so I'll start with a fairly uncommon only but always interesting to find and that was a Death Cap (Amanita phalloides) in Midger's Wood. I took this home and added it to my Cheese and Mushroom omelette, but as luck would have it I wasn't hungry so didn't eat it! I'm joking (yawn) in case anyone thinks this is edible - it is very poisonous! During a short walk to my local Alder Carr woods in Bowbridge, I came across some very tiny Crepidotus type growth on a small Hawthorn twig. Closer up this was the rarely found Chaetocalathus craterellus, a tiny sessile pleurotoid. 2nd rec Gloucs, after my previous record here! At the delightful Minchinhampton Common I came across several times an uncommon cow dung specialist in Coprinopsis pseudonivea, a pale pinky capped mushroom at first. They were in every other cow-pat, and as a lot of people were giving me strange looks I gave up after the 10th. Two of the best finds for the month were at Ebworth NT Estate. These were Cortinarius elegantissimus and C. vulpinus. Both very rare, and the former 2nd for Gloucs. but no others except in the SE of England. The latter was new to the county and most every other county west of the Home Counties! The first was helped in ID as the cap and stem skin (only) turns blood red in KOH - not the flesh. Almost easy! The latter not so, but the heavy continuous veil remnants all the way up the stipe and exact spore sizing helped here. Also at Ebworth I found Cystolepiota seminuda, Echinoderma perplexum (2nd for Gloucs.) and Hebeloma laterinum - thks to participants on a UK Fungus Day foray I led at Ebworth. Back at Midgers Wood, which is in Sth Gloucs., I was hunting off-piste almost crawling through low Corylus and young Fagus when I came across a solitary hairy capped something. Amazingly after checking the spores this became one of the few Entoloma species that has a hairy cap. A wonderful little mushroom and E. araneosum. At Ebworth (I go there a lot lately due to the survey I am working on this year) the lovely asco. Helvella lacunosa was discovered as well as under Fagus a viscid capped Hygrophorus unicolor (correctly spelt) and 4th for Gloucs. Five uncommon Inocybe's species were found also. With methodical Inocybe eyes, you can find them. Most of the time invisible unless you stare at the ground for at least a minute - then they somehow materialise before you! No order but I. fraudans (during foray at Ebworth) was found, I. mixtillis and I. subtigrina (1st if accepted) or syn. of I. flocculosa at Cirencester Park near Pinus, I. muricellata at Midgers (close to the Entoloma) and 4th for Gloucs., and I. obscurobadia at Ebworth again - 2nd Gloucs. NB: I often find a lot of 'finds' are 2nd for Gloucs. as an extraordinary amount of species are found in the Forest of Dean by a multitude of Mycologist experts which happens to fall in Gloucs. Oh, blast and diddum's (or similar expressions). Also at Ebworth but under a rare in leaf Elm tree was the cup ascomycete Peziza howsei (after checking with experts at AscoFrance). When under the microscope (you invariably have to with these species) there were no spores within the asci - unusual, so must have been very young. So I replanted it in a flower pot in my garden and will check again in a few weeks time! Still growing after a week, so fingers crossed. Keeping it with the same soil it came with helps. On a short trip to Devon at Otwell Woods (mostly Pinus) I found a Pluteus species. Always check these if near Conifers and sure enough this had occasional clamps in the pileipellis and so was Pluteus pozarianuis. On the way back from the Bowbridge Carr I spotted a must walk-by mushroom in the grass by the pathway. Something told me this wasn't normal, and after checking turned into a lovely Stropharia pseudocyanea or Peppery Roundhead. Bit like Cromwell but he was more salty. Lastly, phew, was twice finding Tricholoma orirubens with black speckling on the gills at Ebworth (4th & 5th for Gloucs), after my 3rd at Craneham! Also at Ebworth was a single Lepiota fuscovinacea. Certainly likes it around these beechwoods. A great month, and I haven't even included species found in Northumberland during a Brit. Mycology. Soc. event there in Sept/Oct.