Tony Hardware's Fungi Finds: July 2023

Well June is normally one of the slowest months for recording Fungi owing mostly to the weather and this month was no exception, even worse it was the hottest June on record in most parts of the country. During Summer I tend to stick close to water, wherever I can find it, maybe spring streams/brooks in woodland, lakeside or rivers. Even so some interesting fungi were found starting with an agaric, so even more surprising, at nearby Stratford Park. By the side of a very public park footpath, children and dogs brushing the fungi almost at times, I found Cyclocybe cylindracea, one of the few species found during summer but with only 6 UK records. I was cock-a-hoop. Even the children and the dogs thought I was odd as my face was only a few cms off the grass. Some others this month included Arcyria obvelata (Myxomycete), although not uncommon thought I would inc. this for its unusual growth pattern. Next up was found on a grass species which I thought may have been a hyphomycete at the time, turned into what probably is a type of Smut class of fungi, something I am not familiar with. Even odder is the hexagonal spore type and added here in case anyone can identify! Found at Newark Park on Hogweed was Didymosphaeria conoidea after 5 other records for Gloucs. all from a Merle Marsden. This lady recorded fungi mostly in the 1990's and was prolific. I would often think I found something new for the county and then up pops Merle again. I would have loved to have met her. On another indescribable grass species I found Lewia (was Pleospora) infectoria with the need to check many species as this one had 5-traverse and one longitudinal septa. Just a few county records. Orbilia luteorubella was also found under damp Corylus. Another unusual Myxo. was found growing through a resupinate Ceripora reticulata. This was Paradiacheopsis rigida, which took some time to ID. New for County. Whilst waiting for a friend in a car park at the Churchill Hospital, what else can you do except look at dead dicots and monocots in flower beds. One turned out to be Lewia (was Pleospora) scrophulariae at home and 1st for Oxon. At Dinbury Park nth. of Sapperton alongside a small unfenced large pond (quite dangerous looking to me) I found a dead stem of Water Dock (Hydrolapatum rumex). Just one! However it held at its base what I had hoped Pyrenopeziza polygoni - just the second county record. And I didn't fall in, which I had expected! Lastly, a fairly unusual resupinate was found under Prunus in Scopuloides leprosa.