Got this text from my mum at the weekend. Can you guess what she'd found at the bottom of the garden?
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A fine False Morel Gyromitra esculenta!
For the record
Date: 16/03/2019
Location: Haslemere
Monday, 18 March 2019
Guess the species
Got this text from my mum at the weekend. Can you guess what she'd found at the bottom of the garden?
[Scroll down]
[Keep scrolling]
A fine False Morel Gyromitra esculenta!
For the record
Date: 16/03/2019
Location: Haslemere
Sunday, 17 March 2019
Spring zing
Had a free morning and the sun was out, so seemed like a good opportunity for a poke around my local patch.
The Spring Hazelcup Encoelia furfuracea are out again. I find them around here every year.
Some patches looked like they'd been out for a while.
In the woods there is a windblown Ash which is home to a Ganoderma and King Alfred's Cakes Daldinia concentrica. Growing in the cracks of the bark, on the horizontal trunk, I came across a Peziza-type thing.
The outer surface is rough, with dark scales around the opening.
Expect I'll need to put some work into getting an ID on this one.
This rotting (birch?) log was home to some very intriguing fungi.
The bright tan caps of these little mushrooms were shrouded in a thick white veil, with a covering of gingery-brown scales, especially towards the top.
When I pulled one out for a closer look, I noticed patches of fine ginger threads growing over the substrate...
... Ah hah! I thought, I have seen this before: it looks like the gingery mat – or 'ozonium' – of Firerug Inkcap Coprinellus domesticus.
Except mycology is rarely so simple. The Collins Fungi Guide (Buckzacki) explains there are three other species which can be confused with Firerug Inkcap Coprinellus domesticus and also arise from an ozonium: C. ellisii (considered by some authors to be synonymous with C. domesticus), C. xanthothrix and C. radians.
Turning to Funga Nordica (Knudsen & Vesterholt), C. ellisii is included within the species concept they follow for C. domesticus. And it looks like C. domesticus, C. xanthothrix and C. radians can be separated on spore shape and size. I shall have to see if I can get some mature spores from my collection...
UPDATE 18/03/2019 - my collection has matured a bit and I have managed to obtain a spore print.
Here are the spores, mounted in water at 400x magnification.
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| Spores from spore print. Mounted in water. 400x magnification. |
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| Illustration of C. domesticus spores, from Funga Nordica. |
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| Close up of my micrograph, showing "ellipsoid to phaseoliform" spore shape and large central germ pore. |
Let's call this one C. domesticus.
Near there, I came across a rotting stump covered in what-I-think-are Glistening Inkcap Coprinellus micaceus, pictured at the top of this blog. (Although I've since read that this is another species which can be confused; I didn't take a specimen, so can't check the finer details.)
In one of the more remote corners of the wood, my head was turned by a rather lush looking plant.
Stinking Hellebore Helleborus foetidus. The Flora of Sussex describes this as "native in chalky woodland and scrub" and "always rare as a native in Sussex". I would think it's likely my find is a native plant as it was in a chalky woodland, well away from any houses.
I love the touch of purple.
I didn't see too much else of note.
By the gate there is a dead Elder tree. I liked how the Jelly Ear Auricularia auricula-judae is growing from the spiralling cracks in the grain.
And in an old stand of Hazel I spotted this round silver-y mass: the hardened fruit body ('aethalium') of False Puffball Reticularia lycoperdon, a slime mould. Just doing its thing.
For the record
Date: 17/03/2019
Location: Horton Wood
Grid reference: TQ208127 (site centroid)
Sunday, 10 March 2019
Bonfire of the rarities
I saw some information on Twitter about Multiclavula vernalis the other day and wondered if the wet heathy habitat at Sussex Wildlife Trust's Graffham Common reserve might be a good place to look for it...
... So I went and had a good poke around in the wet bits yesterday. Didn't find any M. vernalis.
I did find these though, some very small young fruit-bodies emerging from a lichen- and algae-covered bank.
The larger one at the top had a slightly striate cap...
... and beautiful decurrent gills.
I felt fairly certain this would be Heath Navel Lichenomphalia umbellifera, which I recorded at Graffham Common in 2017 (here), and thought I'd just take a quick look at the spores to confirm.
Now I'm confused.
This is what the spores (from a spore print) look like at 400x magnification, mounted in water.
My measurements came out at 7.5-9.5 x 4.5-5.5 microns {based on 10 spores}; which is the right sort of ball park for L. umbellifera.
But I looked at the spore images on Malcolm Storey's bio-images site (here) and in his collections of L. umbellifera the spores are hyaline with big oil droplets (like this).
My collection doesn't have any conspicuous oil droplets. I'm wondering if I might have a different 'omphaloid' species here, such as Omphalina pyxidata...? (Apologies about the darkness of the images, my microscope and angle-poise lamp are not cooperating today).
Moving on up the hill, I came across an old fire site.
I remembered that this was where I found an interesting-looking Clitocybe specimen in 2017 which – after much deliberation – I ended up calling Clitocybe sinopica (read all about it here).
Looking closely, I saw this area was dotted with clusters of mushrooms with reddish-tan caps. Could this be my Clitocybe again?
Looking back at my notes from 2017, I saw that one of the features of C. sinopica which I was not able to detect then was a "strong mealy, farinaceous smell". I gave these fresh mushrooms a sniff and immediately recognised the mealy smell.
The fruitbodies produced a white spore-print, and masses of spores.
My measurements came out at 7.8-9.1 x 4.4-5.8 microns {based on 10 spores}. Looking closely at the spores, they are mostly ellipsoid.
My collection seems to fit the description of C. sinopica reasonably well (?), but would be nice to get it confirmed by someone who knows their Clitocybes...
Finally, while I was photographing the Clitocybe, I noticed some other mushrooms popping up across the fire site.
Some kind of Inkcap, with a wooly ('tomentose') white base.
There were some younger specimens as well...
These showed distinctive fibrillose veil remnants covering the cap.
My best guess with these is Bonfire Inkcap Coprinopsis jonesii (=Coprinus lagopides), based on descriptions in Phillips and here. The elliptical to subglobose shape of the spores would seem to support this. And I see Malcolm Storey recorded this speces down the road, at Lavington Common, in 2000 (here)...
... But then I am never very confident identifying 'inkcaps'.
An interesting little haul, even if I am left a little uncertain on the identifications.
For the record
Date: 9 March 2019
Location: Graffham Common
Grid reference: SU9319
During the #LAFF100 🍄 project, the 2 records you have sent us of the moss club (Multiclavula vernalis) come from opposite ends of the UK - N. Ebudes & S. Hampshire!— Lost & Found Fungi (@LostFoundFungi) March 4, 2019
Please continue to look out for it in damp peaty environments & send us your records. https://t.co/BOT87VrOtG pic.twitter.com/rzby7moR5f
... So I went and had a good poke around in the wet bits yesterday. Didn't find any M. vernalis.
I did find these though, some very small young fruit-bodies emerging from a lichen- and algae-covered bank.
The larger one at the top had a slightly striate cap...
... and beautiful decurrent gills.
I felt fairly certain this would be Heath Navel Lichenomphalia umbellifera, which I recorded at Graffham Common in 2017 (here), and thought I'd just take a quick look at the spores to confirm.
Now I'm confused.
This is what the spores (from a spore print) look like at 400x magnification, mounted in water.
 |
| Spores in water. 400x magnification. |
My measurements came out at 7.5-9.5 x 4.5-5.5 microns {based on 10 spores}; which is the right sort of ball park for L. umbellifera.
But I looked at the spore images on Malcolm Storey's bio-images site (here) and in his collections of L. umbellifera the spores are hyaline with big oil droplets (like this).
 |
| Spores in water. 1000x magnification. |
My collection doesn't have any conspicuous oil droplets. I'm wondering if I might have a different 'omphaloid' species here, such as Omphalina pyxidata...? (Apologies about the darkness of the images, my microscope and angle-poise lamp are not cooperating today).
Moving on up the hill, I came across an old fire site.
I remembered that this was where I found an interesting-looking Clitocybe specimen in 2017 which – after much deliberation – I ended up calling Clitocybe sinopica (read all about it here).
Looking closely, I saw this area was dotted with clusters of mushrooms with reddish-tan caps. Could this be my Clitocybe again?
Looking back at my notes from 2017, I saw that one of the features of C. sinopica which I was not able to detect then was a "strong mealy, farinaceous smell". I gave these fresh mushrooms a sniff and immediately recognised the mealy smell.
The fruitbodies produced a white spore-print, and masses of spores.
 |
| Spores in water. 400x magnification. |
My measurements came out at 7.8-9.1 x 4.4-5.8 microns {based on 10 spores}. Looking closely at the spores, they are mostly ellipsoid.
 |
| Spores in water. 1000x magnification. |
 |
| Spores in water. 1000x magnification (+ digital zoom). |
My collection seems to fit the description of C. sinopica reasonably well (?), but would be nice to get it confirmed by someone who knows their Clitocybes...
Finally, while I was photographing the Clitocybe, I noticed some other mushrooms popping up across the fire site.
Some kind of Inkcap, with a wooly ('tomentose') white base.
There were some younger specimens as well...
These showed distinctive fibrillose veil remnants covering the cap.
My best guess with these is Bonfire Inkcap Coprinopsis jonesii (=Coprinus lagopides), based on descriptions in Phillips and here. The elliptical to subglobose shape of the spores would seem to support this. And I see Malcolm Storey recorded this speces down the road, at Lavington Common, in 2000 (here)...
 |
| Spores in water. 400x magnification. |
An interesting little haul, even if I am left a little uncertain on the identifications.
For the record
Date: 9 March 2019
Location: Graffham Common
Grid reference: SU9319
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