Holy Smoky Spindles!

 

I was asked to take a look at an East Sussex cemetery this week, after a local ecologist noticed it was looking very waxcappy and OH MY GOODNESS, was it waxcappy!!!

I make it fourteen species of waxcaps recorded on today's visit. Considering the threshold for consideration for SSSI status is 19 species (which would typically be recorded over multiple visits, over several years), that's pretty darn waxcappy! This site will certainly qualify as being of at least regional importance for its grassland fungi assemblage, based on what I've seen today. Here's a quick list (all photos taken on site today):

1. Pretty sure this is Spangle Waxcap Hygrocybe insipida, with the translucent, striate cap. I don't always see it with such decurrent gills, but it is a very variable species and the gills can be deeply decurrent, according to Boertmann.

I've got this one down as H. insipida too, with that red top to the stipe. But I'm open to correction! H. insipida is so variable it can be a bit bamboozling at times.

 

2. Snowy Waxcap Cuphophyllus virgineus. Classic snowy. Loads of these around.

3. Butter Waxcap Hygrocybe ceracea. Note the consistently yellow tones, adnate gills and more diminutive stature compared to the next species.

4. Golden Waxcap Hygrocybe chlorophana. You can see from the shine on these how viscid they are. Note the adnexed gills.

5. Slimy Waxcap Gliophorus irrigatus. Very fresh and so slimy they were almost impossible to pick up!

6. Scarlet Waxcap Hygrocybe coccinea. Beautiful.

 There were SO MANY of these. The photos don't do them justice.

7. Blackening Waxcap Hygrocybe conica

Also popping up here near some H. chlorophana...

8. Pink Waxcap Porpolomopsis calyptriformis - a high diversity indicator. Around four fruit bodies in total. I liked the very delicate pink colour on these. 

9. Crimson Waxcap Hygrocybe punicea - a high diversity indicator. Stunning mushrooms.

10. Yellow-foot Waxcap Cuphophyllus flavipes - a high diversity indicator. Very fine specimens showing their yellow feet nicely.

11. Honey Waxcap Hygrocybe reidii. Reckon I definitely got the honey-like smell with these, and the colour is quite distinctive.

12. Neohygrocybe sp.? - a high diversity indicator. I'm still puzzling over this one but I'm thinking either N. ingrata, with those orangey-brown tones, or possibly N. nitrata? I thought maybe I could detect a faint nitrous smell but I'm not great with smells.

I've looked for reddening in the flesh (typical of N. ingrata) but I'm not convinced I'm seeing it.

13. Parrot Waxcap Gliophorus psittacinus

Some pretty tawny-coloured ones (showing a little bit of green if you looked hard enough).

... and some pinkish ones. Never get bored of the colours on these.

14. Meadow Waxcap Cuphophyllus pratensis. 

I think these were just starting to show. Made me wonder if any other species will be on their way here, later in the season?

X. Hygrocybe sp. I'm not sure about.

The dry cap and that shade of orange are making me think H. reidii but I couldn't get the honey smell with these and I've never seen them growing so tall in a clump like this. So not sure if these are H. reidii but don't know what else they could be...

Also Meadow Coral Clavulinopsis corniculata, growing here with a teeny tiny Meadow Waxcap C. pratensis.

And a couple of patches of Smoky Spindles Clavaria fumosa.

Plus some yellow clubs and spindles which I haven't attempted to tackle. The diversity on this site was a bit overwhelming! Reckon I must have seen at least four different Clavarioid species today.

What a show!

 

For the record

Date: 30 October 2021

Records will be submitted via iRecord in due course.

High Weald waxcaps: Wednesday

I joined the Natural England Field Unit on their grassland surveys this week, recording the sites' mycological interest. This blog is not really one for 'reading', but a reminder for me of what we encountered.

On a private estate in the High Weald

There wasn't much to see on this recently cut old hay meadow; still perhaps a bit too early-season for the grassland fungi?

Just a couple of species showing... Blackening Waxcap Hygrocybe conica.

Snowy Waxcap Cuphophyllus virgineus

Down-slope from that field it was perhaps a bit damper (looks greener, right?), with a few more fungi to be seen. 

Now we're into Entoloma territory...

Collection #267: Beige with dark eye spot.

Collection #268: big blue ones. These are some great lookin' mushrooms.

 

I think this is the same population I had a go at identifying in 2019. Back then (here) I made them Entoloma atromadidum.

Nearby there were lots of Spotted Blewit Lepista panaeolus on show. 

Collection #269: Entoloma griseocyaneum. Note the fibrillose-scaly pale brown cap and blue-grey tinted fibrillose stipe on these.

 Collection #270: Entoloma sp. (with C. virgineus). Hmm.

Collection #271. Another one of those beige ones with the dark eye-spot. (Compare with Entoloma exile.)

Around lunchtime we headed over to some different fields, starting in the one near the car park.

Spotted some fine looking Entoloma porphyrophaeum. 

Then it rained. A LOT. Which explains why these next mushrooms look so shiny. 

Collection #267. More beige ones. Maybe more of the same?

These White Spindles Clavaria fragilis were actually submerged in rainwater by the time we found them. 

Into field 109...

Collection #274. Entoloma sp. ID'd in the field as Entoloma chalybeum var. lazulinum. 

Collection #275 and #276. More beige Entoloma sp. Slightly papillate, but eye-spot not noticeably dark.

Collection #277. More beige Entoloma sp.! But these ones have a very distinct dark eye-spot. 

Collection #278. A lovely Spangle Waxcap Hygrocybe insipida. Beautiful decurrent gills on this specimen.

 Collection #279. One of those 'yellow spindles'.

Came across a nice patch of very fresh-looking Golden Waxcap Hygrocybe chlorophana. Here's a photo for all the folks who like looking at fields.

 And here's Blackening Waxcap Hygrocybe conica in the same field. 

I took this photo of some Parasols Macrolepiota procera just because I thought they looked like The Three Bears. 

Field 110...

Collection #280. A very papillate Entoloma. 

Collection #281. Glutinous Waxcap Hygrocybe glutinipes.

Collected these too but forgot to give them a number. Entoloma sp. (compare with E. infula?)

Into the last (top) field...

Collection #282. You can tell I'm losing interest in Entoloma spp. by this point and seem to be more focussed on photographing raffle tickets.

Collection #283. Another Entoloma ... Striate cap with dark scales in the centre. Smooth steel-grey stipe. There are a bunch that look like this, huh?

Final collection (not numbered): Entoloma chalybeum. A lovely midnight blue colour.

Cemetery

We popped into a cemetery after which had some nice grassland fungi interest.

Couldn't resist photographing this Pink Waxcap Porpolomopsis calyptriformis. 

And a Star Pinkgill Entoloma conferendum. Got a collection of this so I can check out its star-shaped spores later.

It was lovely to see masses of 'yellow spindles' popping up through the mossy grass.

For the record

Date: 20 October 2021

Location: High Weald, East Sussex

Records will be submitted via the Natural England Field Unit.