Found near Frant

Lots of mushrooms popping up at the moment, amidst all this rain. Saw some beauties near Frant, East Sussex, last weekend – around Eridge Old Park and Whitehill Wood.

I've been fancying doing this walk for a while, ever since I read about it in that fabulous publication: The Butterflies of Sussex.

This bolete was a new one for me.

It quickly turned a striking shade of blue, upon being cut...

... in the stem, as well as the cap.

And underneath the cap: SCARLET pores.

Using the key in Geoffrey Kibby's British Boletes, I make this one Scarletina Bolete Neoboletus luridiformis – a fairly common species. But what a stunner.

Next to the footpath that runs along the northern edge of Eridge Old Park, I spotted this mushroom sprouting out from a rotting log...

... providing food and shelter to this rather handsome slug.

I thought it was probably a Deer Shield Pluteus cervinus, so took a small section of the cap to check for the 'horned cystidia' which are characteristic of this species.

Here is a shot of one of those 'horned cystidia' under the microscope. I think this confirms it as Deer Shield Pluteus cervinus.
 

Mounted in water. 400x magnification.

Nearby we spotted this stunning slime mould crawling over a pile of rotting wood. I think this is White Coral Slime Mould Ceratiomyxa fruticulosa.

A little further along I came across this lanky thing, growing up through the grass as the side of the path. Hard to believe such a slender stem can support that broad cap.

It's a little difficult to make out from this quick snap, but the cap is rather wrinkled; like the skin is slightly too big for the cap. The wrinkles are distributed radially: spreading out from the centre like spokes on a wheel.

Underneath, it has rather distant white gills.

I think it's probably Rooting Shank Xerula radicata. I did contemplate digging it up to see if it had the characteristic long rooted stem. But it looked so pretty I decided to leave it.

A big fallen Beech was hosting a large crop of oyster mushrooms Pleurotus sp.

Reflecting on Ted Tuddenham's advice following my Pleurotus find the other week, it's probably the Oyster Mushroom Pleurotus ostreatus. But P. ostreatus, and the complex of species around it, can be very variable and microscopy is often required to be sure. So I think I'll stick with Pleurotus sp. to be on the safe side.

In Whitehill Wood, I passed more dead and blackened remains of Spindle Toughshank Collybia (Gymnopus) fusipes, popping up around the roots of the oak trees – like I'd seen in Frith Wood the week before. But there was also this fresh cluster emerging.

A pile of decaying Beech logs produced a few other species.

I think this is Small Stagshorn Calocera cornea.

This got me stumped:

Fruit bodies growing out of the cut end of a large Beech log.

One of the fruit bodies: upper side.

One of the fruit bodies: underside

My best guess is a Polyporus species of some kind, but it doesn't seem to match up with any of the species illustrated in my field guides.

For the record
Date: 23/07/2017
Location: Eridge Old Park and Whitehill Wood near Frant, East Sussex
Grid reference: TQ5835 (N. luridiformis, C. fusipes); TQ5734 (P. cervinus, C. fruticulosa, X. radicata?, Pleurotus sp.); TQ583350 (C. cornea, Polyporus sp.)

Records entered into FRDBI 06/09/2018

Little Brown Job

Found this little brown mushroom growing up through leaflitter in Hoe Wood, West Sussex. It's a mixed deciduous woodland of oak and hazel, with a bit of hawthorn scrub and other woodland plants.

Squares are each 5mm.

The mushroom has a fibrous, hollow stem; brown cap and pink-ish gills.

It produced a pinky-brown spore print. Here are the spores at 100x magnification.

I'm reasonably confident this narrows things down to the genus Entoloma. That might be as far as I'm going to get with this one.

For the record
Date: 21/07/2017
Location: Hoe Wood, Small Dole [private site]
Grid reference: TQ2113

The curious case of the disappearing mushrooms

On a quick walk around Woods Mill at lunchtime on Monday, I came across this scene:

Masses of tiny mushrooms popping up on a decaying log. I thought they were probably Fairy Inkcap Coprinellus disseminatus and just grabbed a quick snap, as I had every intention of going back for a closer look.

Now, suddenly, it's Friday. And I realise I never did go back to look at those mushrooms. So I took a little detour on my way home from work to see how they're doing.

They've gone.

They're not just 'gone over', or shrivelled up, or decaying. I searched all over the log and can find no trace of the mushrooms that I saw on Monday.

Since making my tentative identification on Monday, I've since spotted in the Collins (photographic) Guide that there's another species which is "virtually identical macroscopically to Fairy Inkcap": Psathyrella pygmaea.

So I guess the identity of these vanishing mushrooms must remain a mystery.

And the moral of the story is: never leave till tomorrow mushrooms which you can identify today.

UPDATE 28/07/2017: Today's update is brought to you by the cliché "sometimes life gives you a second chance [at identifying mushrooms]".

A lunchtime stroll took me back past this log, and I was most surprised to see it was once again covered in tiny mushrooms.

Masses of them.

On a second look, I'm sure these must be Fairy Inkcap Coprinellus disseminatus. They have very fragile caps and thin hollow stems.

Looking at photographs of the similar-looking P. pygmaea, here, that species looks much less dainty than C. disseminatus. 

This habit of growing in profusion – swarming all over rotting wood – is also characteristic of C. disseminatus; as is the colour change from very pale when young (bottom photograph) to grey-brown, as they mature.

So there we go, I'm calling it: Fairy Inkcap Coprinellus disseminatus. 

But what of it's mysterious reappearance? I have some theories:

1. Some kind of physical paradox has caused these mushrooms to be both present and not-present in our universe: these are Schrödinger's mushrooms.
2. These are spectacularly emphemeral mushrooms – the likes of which I've never seen before.
3. Fairies. 

I also like Laurie's suggestion: these mushrooms are just messing with me. 

POSTSCRIPT 29/07/2017

I returned to this spot today, 23 and a half hours after I took the photographs above.

The mossy log is now a scene of total devastation.

For the record
Date: 17/07/2017 and 28/07/2017
Location: Hoe Wood
Grid reference: TQ217136

Record entered into FRDBI 06/09/2018

Frith Wood

After my day out in a dried out wood on the Downs on Saturday (here), Michael and I thought we'd seek out a wet wood on Sunday. So, what better destination than Wet Wood, near Northchapel, West Sussex?

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Well, as it turns out, our walk through Wet Wood turned up relatively little in the way of fungi. Except for another crop of Wolf's Milk Lycogala sp. (growing on a pine log) which Michael said looked like a bum... with three buttocks.

Wolf's Milk Lycogala sp. IMAGE © Michael Blencowe

Oh, and we saw some Cramp Balls Daldinia concentrica.

Still, it was a lovely day so we continued north to Frith Wood, between Northchapel and Shillinglee.

Frith Wood, West Sussex

And what delights we found in Frith Wood!

Next to one of the rides I came across this rather fabulous green brittlegill Russula sp.

It's not terribly obvious in the photograph, but the cap was covered in cracks – a feature I haven't seen in Russula before. I also noted that it was roughly 'half-peeling'.

A quick flick through the Collins (photographic) Guide led me to conclude it was probably a Greencracked Brittlegill Russula virescens.

Given its extensively-nibbled state, I opted not to take a specimen and leave it for the mice to finish dining upon. A decision I now slightly regret, as perusal of Geoffrey Kibby's 'Mushrooms' has highlighted a handful of other species which can appear green-ish with a cracked cuticle, including Russula cutefracta. So I suspect the identity of this mushroom must remain an enigma.

UPDATE 20/07/2017: Geoffrey Kibby has confirmed this as R. virescens (below). Woop woop!

On our walk through Frith Wood we saw quite a few other red Russula; all reasonably fresh but well-nibbled, which made me think they must have popped up after the rain, the preceding Wednesday.

The genus Russula does feel slightly more accessible now I've got Geoffrey Kibby's book which summarises the key features to look for in the different groups. However, you really need to get hold of some iron sulphate (FeSO₄) to start narrowing things down and have good microscopy skills to see variation in spore ornamentation. Neither of which I have, so I think I'll carry on ignoring the Russulas for now.

Finally, a fungus I think I know! Chicken of the Woods Laetiporus sulphureus.

An impressive display of Oak Curtain Crust Hymenochaete rubignosa (?) growing on a large log pile. Which I haven't really done justice to with these crap photos.

All through the wood we saw clumps of dead, blackened mushrooms which had sprouted up around the trunks and roots of oak trees, which I took to be Spindle Toughshank Collybia (Gymnopus) fusipes which I've seen growing in profusion in Hoe Wood before (here).

We eventually emerged on the other side of Frith Wood, in Shillinglee, where I got VERY excited when Michael pointed me towards this, at the side of the road:

No, it isn't a Giant Puffball Calvatia gigantea. It's a rock. He got me good!

The walk back through Frith Wood took us through a few different types of woodland.

In this area of chestnut Castanea Michael found something genuinely exciting. A fresh milk cap Lactarius sp. growing at the base of a chestnut tree, with others scattered around nearby.

The cap was convex, cream-coloured, dry and slightly bumpy (not hairy); the margin fully extended (not in-rolled). The colour of the cap and stipe seem unchanging when bruised or damaged.

It bled easily and quite profusely: watery and cream-coloured milk (looking rather like 'skimmed').

Unfortunately I have failed to match these features to any of the species described in Geoffrey Kibby's 'Mushrooms'. Stuck again!

UPDATE 20/07/2017: Have received a comment from Geoffrey Kibby identifying this as Lactifluus piperatus – the very crowded gills being characteristic of this species. According to his very helpful book, this species has a cap cuticle structure that looks like this:

Let's have a look!

Hmm, well. I can confirm there are definitely some long thin things... Let's move on, shall we?

A little further on we spotted a yellow-capped mushroom growing out of a bit of dead wood, which I presumed to be one of the Pluteus.

I've had a go at identifying yellow Pluteus before (here) and it seemed surprisingly straightforward. You just need to look at the cap cuticle under the microscope. Here it is:

Cross-section of cap cuticle mounted in water. 400x magnification.

Wow! That's completely different to the yellow Pluteus I previously collected. I think this 'filamentous' cap cuticle makes this mushroom Lion Shield P. leoninus.

However, the stand out fungus on our trip to Frith Wood has to be this freakish looking thing.

Hairy on top.

With these jagged pores / gills underneath.

And its hairy, spongy cap felt just like wet dog.



It can surely be none other than a young Dyer's Mazegill Phaelus schweinitzii. Curiously, it appeared to be growing up from the ground; but there was a very old stump nearby which I assume must have been a conifer, and this fruit body is growing up from its roots.

In summary: fungus is totally happening in Frith Wood.

For the record
Date: 16/07/2017
Location: Frith Wood, near Northchapel, West Sussex
Grid reference: SU9530

Records entered into FRDBI 06/09/2018

Scratlee wood

I was up on the Downs on Saturday, near East Dean (West Sussex), exploring a triangle of woodland wedged between Wood Lea and Scratlee wood, just south of Charlton Forest.

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Fallen boughs and a windblown Beech tree held the promise of fungi; and I wasn't disappointed.

Although the woods were very dry up there on the Downs, this Ganoderma species was still looking fresh. I really must learn how to identify these to species. I think it's a spore size thing (unless there are galls from the Yellow Flat-footed Platypezid Fly Agathomyia wankowiczii present, which I always look for but never find).

This rotting bough was hosting a few fruit bodies of Wolf's Milk Lycogala sp.

I haven't sorted out how to identify these to species either, after getting thoroughly confused about the difference between L. terrestre and L. epidendrum last year (here).

This windblown Beech had delivered an impressive crop of oyster mushrooms Pleurotus sp.

... Unfortunately all very dried out.

They were growing in two distinct patches. This patch had turned tan and leathery; and every fruit body appeared to sprout from a separate stem. The edges of each fruit body rolled neatly inwards.

Whereas this small cluster were paler and all sprouting from a common base...

... and the edges appeared more uneven.

This leads me to speculate there may be two separate species here. But which?

Despite poring over the field guides, I can't seem to get my head around whether the Pleurotus are separable / identifiable in the field. I gather that the Oyster Mushroom Pleurotus ostreatus can be very variable and differences compared to other species are rather subtle... So if anyone would care to offer any advice, it would be most welcome!

Finally I spotted this little trio, growing up from a soil substrate in the centre of the path.

I assume the difference in cap colour is a sign of an 'hygrophanous' character. The gills were a dark chocolate brown colour. I also noted the stem was very brittle which I thought might indicate a brittlestem Psathyrella species. But the key to the Psathyrella in Funga Nordica is rather fierce and I don't think I'm feeling brave enough to attempt it today.

For the record
Date: 15 July 2017
Location: Woods on North Down, near East Dean (West Sussex)
Grid reference: SU8914

Mushroom in the bathroom

Look what popped up in our bathroom on Wednesday evening:

A lovely yellow mushroom! Sprouting out from our potted cactus.

A quick glimpse underneath revealed lemon yellow gills.

I couldn't find anything like it in the Collins photo guide (Sterry & Hughes) or the illustrated guide (Buczacki et al). But then spotted the Plantpot Dapperling Leucocoprinus birnbaumii in Phillips' Mushrooms.

It's a match!

Plantpot Dapperling is a tropical/subtropical species which can be found in Britain in heated greenhouses, or indoors situations like this. A little beauty!

I posted these photographs on the British Mycological Society Facebook page where this identification was confirmed by Richard Shotbolt.

For the record
Date: 12/07/2017
Location: Small Dole
Grid reference: TQ2112

Record entered into FRDBI 06/09/2018