Spot the fungus! Was the name of the game at Park Corner Heath today, as I scanned the swathes of wood anemones covering the woodland floor, searching for signs of Anemone Cup Dumontinia tuberosa.
I eventually came across a nice little group, in the foreground in the image above. Here they are up close:
The cups I examined all had long, 'rooting', stalks.
Over on the British Mycological Society Facebook page, Lucas Large agreed they look good for Anemone Cup D. tuberosa and shared this gorgeous colour plate from 'Icones mycologicæ' by Émile Boudier, published online in the Biodiversity Heritage Library.
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| Sclerotinia (= Dumontinia) tuberosa. Illustration from 'Icones mycologicæ' via the Biodiversity Heritage Library. |
I regret now that I didn't dig a bit deeper to find the sclerotia from which this species grows.
I haven't been able to find a huge amount of information about this species on the interweb. Alick Henrici wrote about it in his 'Notes & Records' in 2012 (Field Mycology, volume 13, issue 1) and commented that, "It can't really be rare", although it is fairly seldom recorded.
UPDATE 10/04/2019
Thought I'd do a bit more work on this collection, see what the microscopic features look like.
Still looks pretty good for D. tuberosa...?
For the record
Date: 6 April 2019
Location: Park Corner Heath, East Hoathley, East Sussex
Grid reference: TQ5105414835
We found these on 6th April too out walking in an open wooded area and I nearly stepped on a patch of them I've never seen it before but just read that they are a parasite of anemones of which was a great host growing all about them. I also read they are rare
ReplyDeleteMust be the season for them! I wonder if they like open woodland better than closed woodland...
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