Tony Hardware's Fungi Finds: MAY 2022 - uncommon or rare species

Another eventful asco/hypo filled month. Many new species found for Gloucs., but if you go out two or three times a week, good chance this will happen. During a dry spell I thought I would check out our gorgeous NewZealand Flax (Phormium tenax) growing in our garden. Always worth checking your garden as there's always something lurking in the undergrowth worth looking at. On last year's dead leaves I found an anamorph state Coelomycete, something not found every day. Couldn't see any other records for Colletotrichum phormii. On a Weeping Willow by the River Frome and Canal near me I found a few leaf spot types on leaves in anamorph state as Drepanopeziza sphaerioides. On a broadleaf rotting branch hiding away as so small and buried partly into the underside were many minute 'hedgehogs', or Echinosphaeria canescens would be more appropriate. These were at Siccarage Woods (north better side!). Also here and difficult to detect was Hyaloscypha fuckelii var. alniseda (some call this a separate species) - just a few UK records. Walking through the fields into the woods I came across last year's dead stems of what turned out to be St John's Wort. On the stems I found a very unusual asco in Keissleriella ocellata, new for Gloucs. and few other UK records. Probably more common and just missed as not easy to detect dead plant life in the middle of a field. Once again I found Lachnum subvirgininuem, few UK records. Again probably mostly missed unless looked at 1000x, and short lanceolated paraphyses seen. Found on Rosa canina near Bowbridge Canal I found Lophiotrema rubi again, even so still only a few UK records. During a visit out of Gloucs to Passonage Downs on Salisbury Plain, the best find was on a Hawthorn Bush dead branch in Mollisia caepiticia. Also here on a living Hawthorn tree I eventually detected Nitschkin collapsa - a unique asco where the perithecia deflates when dry and reverses when wetter. Back to Passonage Downs and while waiting for a colleague to arrive I inspected some isolated Hogweed and found at home to be Pyrenopeziza atrata. New for Wilts and SE England! Lastly, a delightful discomycete located under a Corylus branch turned out to be Lachnum fasciculare after careful examination. New for Gloucs. and few UK records. So another good day at the fungi office this month. Just goes to show that fungi is there 12 mths of the year as long as you like identifying ascomycetes!!