Not the mushrooms I was looking for

As my local churchyard has been quite productive of late, I thought I'd try a few other churchyards north of the Downs.

I stopped off at a meadow too, which had been reported to be good for waxcaps some years ago. Here I just found a patch of Yellow Fieldcap Bolbitius titubans.

Nice looking mushrooms when you catch them like this, but a sign of nutrient-rich soil which won't be good for waxcaps. Not what I was looking for.

The first churchyard I stopped at looked rather overgrown. Along one edge I found a fine troop of mushrooms.

One of those Gymnopus species. I found it in leaflitter from the nearby shrubs which were encroaching on the churchyard. Not what I was looking for.

The next site – Westmeston churchyard – looked more promising. One area was kept deliberately long, but most of the churchyard looked like it was regularly mown short.

I thought perhaps I'd spied a white waxcap in the grass.

But it wasn't a waxcap.

It was quite a non-descript thing with its pinkish-beige cap, matching stem and white gills.

But wait, it's not just a washed out Pink Domecap Rugosomyces carnea, is it? Whatever it was, it wasn't what I was looking for.

Nearby, well-camouflaged amongst the autumn leaves, I found some brown mushrooms. I could tell straight away these weren't what I was looking for.

Still don't know what these are. But top marks for autumn colour.

This was shortly followed by a Deceiver Laccaria laccata. Unless I have been deceived?

No one's ever looking for these.

Then a funnel of some kind...

... with a rather floury-looking surface. I thought I could detect a not-unpleasant, mealy smell.

Based on not-much-more than a quick flick through 'Fungi of Temperate Europe', I'm liking it for Mealy Frosted Funnel Clitocybe ditopa. But I'd better check its spores.

My last find at Westmeston were some rather waxy-looking white mushrooms. 

But they weren't waxcaps either. I'm thinking they're possibly the same as the first mushroom I found at Westmeston. But I'd better take a look at the spores.

Next stop was St Margaret's at Ditchling.

This was another well-kept churchyard, kept rather shorter on the southern side and around the church.

In the mossy sward on the northern side, I found a purplish mycenoid thing. 

Lilac Bonnet Mycena pura? I was reasonably convinced I was getting a radish-y smell from it.

In the flatter area of the churchyard, on the northern side, I came across a large fairy ring, 8-10 metres across.

Fruit bodies the size of side plates.

Funnels of some kind...

... but they were going a bit manky and I didn't feel like investigating further. They weren't what I was looking for.

On the way home, I stopped off at the church in Keymer.

Over the wall, I spotted a few tiny fingers of White Spindles Clavaria fragilis poking up through the sward. Not what I was looking for, but a CHEG fungus at least!

I'd completed almost a whole circuit of the churchyard by the time I found this. I think it's Meadow Coral Clavulinopsis corniculata.

Again, not what I was looking for! But a nice fungus to end the day on.

For the record
Date: 29/09/2019

Portrait of a pink mushroom: Rugosomyces carneus

Buoyed up by a flurry of recent finds in my local churchyard, I thought I'd see what was happening out on the village greens and cricket pitches in the wilds of West Sussex.

Not a lot, as it turns out.

The cricket season having only recently drawn to a close, the pitches were mown short. Still, a smattering of Pink Dome Cap Rugosomyces carneus had seized their opportunity. 

They were looking pretty fine. Their rosey pink caps contrasting with crowded white gills, atop a pink stem.

Must've popped up in the last few days, after the rain.

I checked a few books when I got home to see if there are any other species one might confuse them with, but I think I'm on pretty solid ground ID'ing these from their field characteristics. The hairy-felty stem base, visible above, is another characteristic feature.

Some books reference a similar-looking, rarely-recorded species with a clustered / tufted growing habitat: Calocybe persicolor. But my finds were all growing singly.

I found them growing in a scattered group on the village green in Lurgashall.

And in a pentangle on the cricket pitch at Ebernoe.

Only the odd Orange Mosscap Rickenella fibula joined them on the pitch.

So – too early still for waxcaps. But the sward was looking nice and mossy in places. I'll be back for another visit later in the season.

And nice to see the Chamomile Chamaemelum nobile flowering in an unmown corner of the cricket pitch at Ebernoe.

For the record
Date: 28/09/2019

Look at this lovely rot

Been popping out on lunch breaks this week to enjoy this Jelly Rot Phlebia tremellosa setting in on a log (probably oak) in one of the glades at Woods Mill.

Look at it!

And the underside. Ooh la la!

For the record
Date: 25/09/2019
Location: Woods Mill, West Sussex

Testing, testing: some buff waxcaps

Lots of lovely rain this week, and back to Henfield churchyard in the drizzle.

The White Spindles Clavaria fragilis were looking even more impressive than last time.

Sticking up above the sward, I saw a buff-coloured mushroom.

I thought it must be one of those buff-coloured Cuphophyllus species, like Cuphophyllus virginea var. ochraceopallida – glistening because it was wet with rain.

But a look underneath quickly dispelled that idea.

The shape of the gills and the stem was all wrong for Cuphophyllus. I'd have to collect this one, to get a closer look at it.

Picking it up, I felt that both the cap and stem were very slimy; the mucus stuck to my fingers and pulled away in thin strings.

This seemed such a distinctive feature, I started with this in my waxcap ID tool:

• Texture of cap surface: viscid
• Texture of stipe surface: viscid

Then I added...

• Cap colour: pale brown (inc. buff, fawn)

... and found the tool was leading me towards Heath Waxcap Hygrocybe laeta var. laeta.  

It's not a species I'm familiar with, but a quick read through the description in Boertmann led me to conclude it can't be that. My collection had no distinctive smell that I could detect; broadly adnate rather than decurrent gills; and no viscid edge to the gills, as far as I could see. 

Looking at the options for species with:

• Texture of cap surface: viscid
• Texture of stipe surface: viscid
• Gill shape: broadly adnate

I came to wondering if I'd found an unusually pale example of Slimy Waxcap Hygrocybe irrigata. Boertmann's description does note that this species can be "... pale greyish brown, sometimes whitish..." 

I realised if I changed my selection in the ID tool to...

• Cap colour:whiteish (inc. ivory, cream, pale buff)

... then my collection would have keyed out straight away as Slimy Waxcap Hygrocybe irrigata. So I think that must be what I've got here.


Honestly, colours have been the bane of this project! I spent WEEKS trying to figure out a sensible way of categorising waxcap colours for this ID tool...

I made myself a little bit crazy before Christmas, trying to design a continuous colour spectrum you could use to describe the colour of waxcaps. It didn't work and I have learned never to attempt anything like this again. pic.twitter.com/1txbaq46Mq

— Clare Blencowe (@__clare__) February 5, 2019

... and now here I am tripping myself up with distinctions between "buff" and "pale buff". Anyway, I think I can go with this collection being "pale buff".

NEXT UP

Some more, smaller, whiteish / buff coloured mushrooms.

This time they do look like they're from the Cuphophyllus group, with those decurrent, arcuate gills.

I selected all the features in the ID tool. And I got stuck then, because they seem to fit for Snowy Waxcap C. virginea (which has some brownish varieties) OR Cedarwood Waxcap C. russocoriacea. 

A smell of pencil sharpenings would clinch it for C. russocoriacea. But I'm not very good with smells. I think maybe I'm getting it... or is that just my imagination? I'll put it in a box for a bit and see if that intensifies any smell.

There doesn't seem to be an obvious way of separating these two species on microscopic features either. Boertmann's key separates these two on a the basis of "smell strong like Russia leather or cedar wood" in C. russocoriacea. 

Hmm.

*has another sniff*

Still not sure.


Found another nice grassland species, which isn't a waxcap.

I think this mushroom is Pink Domecap Rugosomyces carneus.

There was also this going on, but I'm not ready to get into Corals just yet. Unless I can call it Beige Coral Clavulinopsis umbrinella and be done with it?

For the record
Date: 27/09/2019
Location: Henfield churchyard, West Sussex

Testing, testing: some yellow waxcaps

Yes! Finally, some rain. So quick post-work jaunt to Henfield churchyard today to look for waxcaps.

White Spindles Clavaria fragilis were back in the same spot I've seen them before.

To the northern side of the church, in a shady corner of the churchyard, I spotted something yellow nestled in the sward.

A waxcap! But which?

The cap felt slightly greasy. Oily?


I thought I could catch the smell of wet laundry. Or was that my jumper?

The gills looked to be emarginate.


Nearby, I found some more around the same size, but getting rather old.

This fruit body had a slight salmon hue to the gills (not shown brilliantly in this photo, in artificial light)...

Using the waxcap ID tool and referring to Boertmann's description, I think these waxcaps are Oily Waxcap Hygrocybe quieta.

Once I'd stopped in this corner of the churchyard, I saw I was surrounded by more waxcaps. Glossy, diminutive yellow-orange things.

I was struck by their radially striate caps and translucent centre.

The glossy caps felt viscid: slightly tacky to touch. The slender stem was also lubricous to viscid.

The gills were shortly decurrent.

I've been all round the houses with this one (there are a lot of little yellow waxcaps!) but the viscid character and striate cap is leading me towards Glutinous Waxcap Hygrocybe glutinipes var. glutinipes.

Finally, a small white mushroom with decurrent gills. The size made me think Cuphophyllus. virginea, but the dry cap and stature seemed more like C. pratensis var. pallida.

Boertmann notes that spore size is a good separating character between these white Cuphophyllus species.

Spores mounted in water. 1000x magnification.

The spores from my collection are all subglobose and around 5 x 4.5 microns in size. I think this means I've got Pale Waxcap Cuphophyllus pratensis var. pallida.

Must get a new microscope camera. This one's intolerably scuzzed up!

For the record
Date: 24/09/2019
Location: Henfield churchyard, West Sussex