Lundy Fungi

Fungus observations from LUNDY

Had a nice trip across the water to Lundy earlier this week. Splashed out on a copy of 'Lundy Fungi' by John Hedger & David George (published by The Lundy Field Society) which turned out to be money well spent as it's a really nice, informative photographic guide to the species you're likely to encounter in the island's different habitats.

Much of Lundy is designated as a SSSI and, as I was just there as a day-tripper, I'd made no effort to obtain the necessary permissions to collect specimens for identification purposes. What follows is therefore an account of what I was able to observe of the island's fungi in situ.

I'm reasonably certain the mushrooms in the photo above are Fairy Ring Champignon Marasmius oreades, with that pronounced umbo. They were growing in the short grass on the cliff-top, near Devil's Slide.

The grazed areas we passed through on our walk up the western coast were dotted with piles of dung, hosting some impressive fungal displays.

I think these pair are Egghead Mottlegill Panaeolus semiovatus...

The stems were dusted with black spores...

... and this younger specimen shows the ring around the stem nicely.

These, I'm sure, are something different. But I would not be confident in naming them.

I noticed that the young fruit body emerging towards the centre of this photograph had a distinctive reddish-brown colour to it.
 

UPDATE 20/06/2019 - advice from Mandy Dee, Lundy Fungus Recorder, over on the British Mycological Society Facebook page, is that this is Psilocybe coprophila. 

I suspect this yellow fellow is something different again. But hard to say without a closer look.

UPDATE 20/06/2019 - advice from Mandy Dee is that this is Stropharia semiglobata. A species which the Lundy Fungi book describes as very common on Lundy.

On the heath, near Jenny's Cove, I spotted quite a few of these guys. I think they're Heath Navel Lichenomphalia umbellifera.

And the Golden Hair Lichen Teloschistes flavicans at the North End was pretty special.

Heading back towards civilisation, on Hangman's Hill, I was happy to come across Campion Anther Smut Microbotryum lychnidis-dioicae again (after my recent encounter close to home).

 And there was the ubiquitous bramble rust...

I did allow myself to collect one of the bramble leaves, so I could get a closer look.

With reference to Ellis & Ellis's 'Microfungi on Land Plants', I think my collection is Phragmidium violaceum, with its mostly 3-septate teliospores. A new one for me.

For the record
Date: 18/06/2019
Location: Lundy, Devon

Campion Anther Smut

I've been taking a closer look at the Red Campion Silene dioica on my route to work, ever since I heard about Campion Anther Smut Microbotryum violaceum sensu lato (from @fungifrolics). Finally found some! On Sussex Wildlife Trust's Woods Mill nature reserve, near the willow tunnel.

What mycological madness is this, to try and wrap my head around?! This is a fungus which, having infected a host plant, proceeds to take over the plant's sexual parts for its own reproductive purposes. In the place of anthers, which would have borne pollen, the fungus causes the plant to produce a mass of dark brown spores.

An illustrated life cycle of Microbotryum can be found in Schäfer et al (2010). Fascinating stuff!

There is also a very accessible introduction to the Microbotryum violaeum species complex on A. J. Silverside's website, here. And it seems that modern molecular studies have not yet completely succeeded in resolving the complex into a group of satisfactorily delimited species (Vánky, 2004).

I had read that the spores of Microbotryum are ornamented with a reticulate ('net-like') mesh. This prompted me to spend a few hours playing with the microscope.

Here are a couple of spores from my Woods Mill collection. Both images were taken at 1000x magnification under oil immersion & manually focus-stacked using Helicon Focus.

• Left: on my trusty, somewhat ancient, SP03 
• Right: on the older-model SP100 I recently acquired. 

Took me all evening, but I was happy to get that relatively crisp right-hand image from my 'new' microscope. It was interesting to compare with these SEM images in Denchev et al (2009).

Figures 3-4 from Denchev et al (2009). Spores of Microbotryum lychnidis-dioicae (Liro) G. Deml & Oberw. on Silene latifolia in SEM. Bars 3 = 1 μm, 4 = 2 μm. Image © Denchev et al 2009.

Having been thoroughly distracted by this fungus's biology and rather attractive spores, all that remains is to put a species name to it. Spooner & Legon (2006), in their list of species in the Microbotryum violaceum complex which can be recognised in Britain, have M. lychnidis-dioicae occurring in anthers of Silene dioica. Whereas Vánky (2004), advocates using the name M. violaceum sensu lato, pending further taxonomic work. So there we go. Take your pick.

There are a whole bunch of different Microbotryum species, parasitising different plants. I think one of the most modern comprehensive treatments must by Vánky (1998) but there is also a nice list – with pictures! – in the recent 'Smut and Allied Fungi of Wales' (Woods et al, 2018). Want to find them all now!


References

Denchev, C. M., Giraud, T. & Hood, M. E. (2009). Three new species of anthericolous smut fungi on Caryophyllaceae. Mycologia Balcanica. 6: 79-84. URL: http://max2.ese.u-psud.fr/publications/Denchev_2009.pdf

Schäfer, A., Kemler, M., Bauer, R. & Begerow, D. (2010). The illustrated life cycle of Microbotryum on the host plant Silene latifolia. Botany. 88. 875-885. 10.1139/B10-061. URL: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/235119641_The_illustrated_life_cycle_of_Microbotryum_on_the_host_plant_Silene_latifolia 

Silverside, A.J. Microbotryum violaceum. URL: http://www.bioref.lastdragon.org/Pucciniomycotina/Microbotryum_violaceum.html (accessed June 2019)

Spooner, B.M. & Legon, N.W. (2006). Additions and amendments to the list of British smut fungi. Mycologist. 20(3). pp. 90-96. URL: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0269915X06000322

Vánky, K, (1998), The genus Microbotryum (smut fungi). Mycotaxon 67: 33-60.

Vánky, K., (2004), Anther smuts of Caryophyllaceae. Taxonomy, nomenclature, problems in species delimitation. Mycologia Balcanica 1: 189–191. URL: https://zenodo.org/record/2546766#.XOOzcdh7m70 

Woods, R.G., Chater, A.O., Smith, P.A., Stringer, R.N. & Evans, D.A. (2018). Smut and Allied Fungi of Wales: A Guide, Red Data List and Census Catalogue. Aberystwyth. URL: https://eprints.soton.ac.uk/425372/1/smut_RDL.pdf

For the record
Date: 20/05/2019
Location: Woods Mill, West Sussex
Grid ref: TQ217137

Tutsan Rust

Been finding myself intrigued by rusts recently.

I reckon this one's Tutsan Rust Melampsora hypericorum.

Quite pretty! Pathogen, or just part of life's rich tapestry?

For the record
Date: 8/6/2019
Location: Rowland Wood, East Sussex
Grid ref: TQ515147

Dining on oysters

This blog is brought to you in association with Patrick Roper and Lois Mayhew. Sussex naturalists assemble!

I went for a walk round Ebernoe Common the weekend before last, on one of those hot sunny days that seem like a distant memory after a few days of rain.

It had been so dry, I was surprised to find a fallen beech tree sprouting oyster mushrooms: Pleurotus ostreatus, I believe. On the southern side of the trunk they were fully grown and showing signs of having been grazed upon by molluscs.

A very active Black-headed Cardinal Beetle Pyrochroa coccinea seemed to be investigating the area. Perhaps looking for smaller insects to prey upon.

On the northern side of the trunk, more fruit bodies were emerging in their hundreds from underneath the bark.

Approaching, I scared up a great cloud of insects which, left undisturbed for a few minutes, settled again on the fresh young fruit bodies.

Looking closely, I saw that most of these insects were tiny flies.

I asked Sussex dipterist Patrick Roper if he could tell me anything about these flies and was delighted when – looking at a photograph – he tentatively identified them as fruit fly Hirtodrosophila trivittata.

I needed to get one of these flies under the microscope to get a proper look at its features, so returned to Ebernoe a few days later to collect a specimen. The dark stripes on the thorax, with the central stripe extending down the top of the head is really quite distinctive. And it's got this little black 'spoiler' type structure on the back of the thorax which must give it some mad aerodynamic properties.

Patrick's identification was confirmed by Peter Chandler in the Dipterists Forum who was kind enough to share an account of this species. It was first recorded in England in 2008, from Hampshire, but has since occurred widely in the south, usually in association with Pleurotus species, "around which it can be quite numerous". That was certainly the case where I found it!

I think this sighting may constitute the second record for Sussex, as it was apparently recorded from Fontwell Wood in 2011. But it's hard to be sure as the species doesn't seem to have made it into the UK species dictionary yet, or iRecord.

While I was distracted by the flies, my companion on this expedition, Lois Mayhew, was busy trying to get a snap of this micromoth.  

Since the publication of Sterling & Parson's Field Guide to Micromoths, illustrated by Richard Lewington, micromoths are not quite as impossibly hard as they used to be. Lois identified this one as Triaxomera fulvimitrella and the UK Moths website records that "this woodland species flies from May to July when it may be found at rest on tree trunks. The larvae feed from September during the winter months in dead wood, or on bracket fungus, especially those growing on beech (Fagus) or oak (Quercus)." Another fungivore!

While Lois was appreciating the resident moth, I found yet more fruit bodies, at an earlier stage of development, emerging from the dim and sheltered underside of the fallen trunk.

A crop like this must be a great resource for the fungivorous creatures of Ebernoe Common, and their predators and parasites. I would love to know more about how these fungus-based food webs work – if anyone can point me in the direction of relevant studies.

Oh and we found a Lesser Stag Beetle Dorcus parallelipipedus here too. But I'm less interested in that because it doesn't have anything to do with fungus. Or at least I don't think it does?

For the record
Date: 1/6/2019 and 5/6/2019
Location: Ebernoe Common, West Sussex
Grid ref: SU972266

Invertebrate records submitted to Dipterists Forum / iRecord