Tony Hardware's Fungi Finds: November 2025

October is usually the busiest month of the year for fungi and so it proved this year especially as the rains came back after a miserable dry summer. It is though all fungi sighed with relief and decided to all grow out all at the same time. I have excluded a week's visit to Dumfries in the early part of the month which I will cover in a separate blog. A return visit to Flisteridge Woods in North Wilts, twice in fact as I now realise what a wonderful site this is as the soil seems more acidic here than back in the deepest Cotswolds. Cortinarius nigrocuspidatus was a nice find and with only 19 other UK records. All Cortinarius need careful examination, and often have to resort to relying on its macro and spores only. I think that all Cortinarius should have a detailed cuticle identification library, added to gill edge cheilocystidia descriptions, if any, even down to Basidia detail, then life would be easier for all. Someone else of course! Fungi of Switzerland by Breitenbach/Kranzlin gets close, but often neglects British species and is now a little out of date with it's taxonomy. Also here by the path-side were a few Clitocybe lookalikes which didn't look that interesting until I stopped to check. These turned out to be Omphalina mutila, the first time I have seen this genus and 1st for Wilts. Pholiotina lenta was a solitary specimen as was Russula clavipes, which took some time to evaluate. 3rd and 1st for Wiltshire respectively. A short visit to Painswick Beacons where Pinus grows by the Golf Course, I found Hebeloma subtortum which would be 3rd for the UK but only 2nd for Gloucs! Again difficult but detail counts and the courage to state what you see. Also here was Inosperma cericolor and with few other records in Gloucs. At Cirencester Park I found an unusual Russula, R. torulosa - this being within a genus I don't find often in the Cotswolds and never have understood why. I'm sure it has to do with the soil type laid within limestone which Russula just doesn't like. This was on soil with grasses/dicots mix and close to a young Larix. Oak was 5 metres away. Inocybe posterula also found here, and 3rd for Gloucs after my 2nd! Unusually growing within a rotting grass heap was Pholiota lenta, perhaps somewhere within it still hung on to wooden debris. On a separate rotted grass mound which I have looked at for 2 years, and was now almost flat except for a large Melanoleuca sps growing up out of the now visible soil. This is now recognised as M. friesii (was M. robusta which I prefer). Few other records in Gloucs. I found my first clump of Sparassis crispa under Picea here also, not that uncommon but I have never found it before. On the 21st Oct I visited under invitation to Exmoor Zoological Park in Devon for a few hrs survey of their site. Most good fungi were no where near the compounds but were in other remote sections of the zoo no one ever goes to! One was a trench which David Attenborough would have thought twice about traversing which no doubt has a gushing stream at other times but I found all sorts of wonderful fungi here. One was Entoloma politum. Close by what is considered a new species of late which I believe to be Neoboletus immatatus showing bright yellow in the base, and maintaining yellow when drying. A staff member handed me a very ordinary Psathyrella type specimen found with the 'Tapirs' but fortunately I still checked it and turned into Psilocybe turficola, this being the 2nd UK record. The spores don't lie. Lastly, Russula laccata was found at the very bottom of their site in a small Nature Reserve with a stream/Salix. Tasting some of these Russulas this month lost my tongue and lips to taste for a few days!! I also looked as though I had a 'lip job' in Bulgaria. Some very acrid. Occupational hazard. I see a new electronic devise has been invented for curry eaters that can identify 'hotness' to a very accurate level without tasting it yourself. I wonder ....!! A hectic month.