Tony Hardware's Fungi Finds: May 2024

Each month I wonder will I find anything this month worth reporting. Well it turned into one of the best month's I have ever had since I started recording and reporting on my 'Fungifinds' blog. I have two species possible new to the UK, one has gone for sequencing at Kew in case new to science. I found and more importantly identified six species that have up to only 10 other records in the UK, along with 7 new species for the County and 6 others, all with just a few records in Gloucs also. This sounds like all about me, but it's exciting to find so many unusual species and as this is my blog! I make no apologies and am more than happy to talk about it!

Firstly, the unknown species, well to me and also to Kew as nothing identified so far. This was a plain looking off-white smooth resupinate growing under Fagus at Barrows Wake. A type of fungi I look at on every trip and this looked like all the others. But I like checking everything! This turned out to be a Gloeocystidiellum sps. due to the obvious Gloeocystida but had fundamental unusual features. One was the gloeocystidia was reversed, with the heads at the hymenium and extremely long tails, simple septa, (most have clamps), spores with very small faint warts, etc and so I will await and hope this can be sequenced by Kew, with thanks to them for taking this up and adding to their long queue for ID. The other gem was just about visible on a Nettle stem when I was nose to ground at the side of an arable field, when even the local fox looked confused by my antics. "Surely humans don't eat Nettles, well neat that is" he said? The minute discomycete allowed me to see within the asci that it was 8-spored. Nothing unusual there you say, they mostly are, EXCEPT this genus and other species are mostly 4-spored, the only one that isn't is Psilachnum micaceum. Also it passed the key Ammonia vapour test where the apothecia turns instantly red from white. Incredible to see with a hand lens! I didn't get this sequenced as I didn't have any material left, noting that each apothecia was just visible at 0.05mm (yes, no typo!). Strangely, another Psilachnum species was found growing on Asplenium scolopendium at Toadsmoor. This turned into P. versicolor as it is the only one that grows on this plant. Easier than most when almost new to the UK! Second record in fact. I find that hard to believe, and think that many just haven't recognised the substrate and is much more common than this. A resupinate I have found twice before turned up again at Ebworth on Populus this time. Except my other records were 4th/5th in the UK! No idea why but again perhaps just ignored too much. This would be Ceriporia aurantiocarnescens. Whilst at Barrows Wake I collected some Cow manure as well as some rabbit pellets. I have not cultured Bos dung before but this looked like a suitable substrate, bearing in mind it has to be in a 'good' state to start with, which I won't elaborate! In the end I found six species on the Cow dung, and one on the Rabbit. Most of which were excellent records. With just a few fruiting bodies Cheilymenia coprinaria was discovered (2nd Gloucs.) the delightfully pretty Coprinellus pusilulus (1st Gloucs.) was on Rabbit, noting most of these finds were at least a 6-day culture. Coprotus granduliformis was also found but was almost the smallest of them all, only just visible to the eye, (yes, 2mm away from my nose in the dung), Podospora conica was found under the microscope (1st Gloucs.) this used to be called Schizothecium hispidulum, and lastly also under the scope Saccobolus versicolor with amazing spore structures that adhere all eight spores into one lovely bundle and do not separate, unless under duress. Going back to the field searches, I found a few unusual discomycetes growing on different common dicots/monocots on a set-a-side area the farmer had reserved. Shows this works as it would normally be ploughed to death. In short Cistella aconiti (only 10 other records UK) which has quite large and guttulate spores for such a small fungus, and Trichopeziza leucephaea as well. This is the same place as last month where a Discomycete is undergoing sequencing in Spain to see where this fits, if at all as a known Calycellina species. NB: I paid for this! Kew is up to it neck with species and without doubling their staff, nothing can happen quickly in my view. Hydropisphaeria peziza and Peziza petersii were found near Tetbury, the former on Acer with only with six other records in the UK. The latter on a soil pile that wasn't burnt so growing on an unusual substrate and in an open without protection sunny area. On a quick visit to my local patch alongside the River Frome in Stroud, where a delightful rarely used footpath exists I found Unguicularia costata (3rd record Gloucs.) and under the microscope first growing in a conidia state with another common pyrenomycete was Cylindrotrichum ellisii. Named as such you will see in the picture below! 6th in UK record, so 1st for Gloucs. Lastly, (phew we both say) I have included an unusual species of Algae, out of interest, which took the help of Juliet Bailey (Chair of Gloucs. Nat. Soc) to identify the genus and eventually I had this down to Trentepohlia abietina (just two other records in England as most are found in Scotland!). A rust looking growth found on a Corylus branch at Bulls Bank near a stream.