Saturday 24 November 2018

Churchyard waxcaps


My local churchyard has a generous scattering of waxcaps at the moment, so I thought I'd better get out and have a proper look before the frosts get them.

Pretty sure these ones are Snowy Waxcap Hygrocybe virginea


And I'm thinking these chunky fruit bodies with dry flesh-coloured caps are Meadow Waxcap Hygrocybe pratensis.


Last weekend, the Parrot Waxcaps Gliophorus psittacina were showing green tones on their slimy caps...



This weekend, they've mostly faded to orange or lilac. But take a peek under the cap, and you can still see that glorious green at the top of their stipes.


These little lemon-yellow characters looked like something different.


The slender stem had a dry surface and was concolorous with the cap towards the apex, with orange tones towards the base. I'm thinking probably Butter Waxcap Hygrocybe ceracea for this one.


That was it for waxcaps, but there were several other interesting things to be found.

This looks like it could be Meadow Coral Clavulinopsis corniculata. I should have collected a specimen, to check for white down near the base – a feature of that species.


I imagine these are some kind of specialist grassland fungi. An Entoloma?




I didn't take a specimen, as I haven't got the right literature for tackling these little brown jobs.

These last ones are proving a bit of a mystery to me. I found them growing near the base of a small yew tree.

Out there, in the rain, they shone with red-orange tones.


But now I've got one home, it looks to be a more boring tan colour.

My collection produced a white spore print, with sub-globose to broadly ellipsoid spores of length 4.5-4.9 microns and width 3.9-4.5 microns, covered in spiny warts.

Spores at 1000x magnification in water.


Having got myself thoroughly confused, I turned to Sussex Fungus Group for advice on this one. Andy Overall suggested comparing against Tawny Funnel Lepista flaccida, which looks like a good match. Funga Nordica does note the colours can be orange-brown to red-brown.

For the record

Date: 24/11/2018

2 comments:

  1. I came here looking for an ID on a crust fungus - which I didn't find, but I'm glad I visited because you have a nice blog! You're not by any chance a member of any Facebook fungi groups are you, because your name sounds familiar...?

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    1. Hi Mark! Thanks for stopping by. Yes, I am in the British Mycological Society Facebook group - I think I have seen you on there too :)

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