Tony Hardware's Fungi Finds: August 2022

July was one of the hottest on record and so to find fungi was not an easy task. So it didn't take me long to work out that I should focus on water based habitats, namely lakes, ponds, streams etc. This worked well with several unusual species being found, one submerged.

On Epilobium hirsutum (Great Willowherb) I found some tiny slightly embedded ascos on a stem with tiny ascospores. I couldn't find a species to match these and so for now will place this in the 'to do' mystery box for later.

What I did find on a glorious damp ancient Common Alder spot at a Gloucestershire WT site at Midger Woods (what a wonderful place this is) was a group of odd looking white spindles. After wondering if this was fungi at all, it transpired to be Cordyceps bifusispora, probably new for the UK if accepted. I found tiny remnants of insect debris inside the bark where this was growing. Also in the oddball range of fungi came Erynia curvispora, found under Alnus submerged in a stream near Bowbridge fields. This was growing on a fly pupae and I only had the macro to identify this with as it evaporated before I got home! Also on Alnus but on a petiole on the ground I found what seemed to represent Hymenoscyphus albopunctus, but these were 5-7mm in size but this is normally found on leaves with much smaller bodies. I once again located Lachnum fasciclare and virtually in the same place as before in Leasowes Woods nr Sapperton. This has only a few UK records. Found on Corylus. Again on Alnus on a damp branch across a stream I found the delightful Miladina lecithina growing which at first glance resembles Bisporella and glad I checked. In the right conditions can be found quite frequently, otherwise is quite elusive. At Martin's Woods I found a Scutellinia sps, this one being S. crinita. The ascospores tend not to show reticulation and are more a warty appearance. Lastly, although I had found quite a few Puccinia species on various dicots and tree sps., I was checking damp Urtica stems by standing in a stream (either that or get stung to bits) and found Trichopeziza leucophaea - one that some authors lump with a similar but whiter species called Belonidium mollissimum. I tend to go with the split as the differences to me are obvious. Normally only found in damp conditions with Urtica (Nettle).