The Roaches, Staffordshire and Isle of Skye, Scotland, April/May 2011

The Roaches, Staffordshire April 2011

A very hot day indeed.  Drove to The Roaches in Staffordshire.  The Roaches taken from Les roches (Rocks) is an impressive mound of rocks rising to 505m.  The primary reason for this trip was to have a challenging walk.  And a challenging walk it was, scrambling up to the top of rocks with Chris at times pushing me up from behind as my legs were too short to climb from one  rock to the next - sun high in the sky and every where dry and dusty. I did not expect to see any fungi as the ground was dry due to lack of rain.

We walked through Lud's Church which is a hidden chasm with sheer walls 60 feet high.  These walls being damp and covered with moss, lichen and ferns even in a mini drought.  Decided to hunt through the mossy walls and found a minute solitary little fungus.  Cap pure white, 0.3-0.5 cm diameter with white very close gills. The stem being very flexible and almost transluscent.  Currently I cannot id this.

Isle of Skye, May 2011 

This was our first trip to the Isle of Skye so did not quite know what to expect either with the weather or the geography.  An Atlantic low settled over The Inner Hebrides all week, so it was extremely windy with outbursts of heavy rain.  This made the scenes very dramatic and of course brought out the fungi spores.  Spent the week in an old Crofters Cottage.

Briars,  An Entoloma I think.  Greasy cap with the right characteristics.


Trottenish Penninsular, Panaeolus campanulatu or sphinctrinus possibly.
Lovely little fungus, in deep wet grass. Grey mottled cap more buff in the centre.
Nice close dark gills and a beautiful tapering stem with floury texture.


All can now be viewed on Browse 3.

Calke Abbey, Derbyshire and fungus in plant pot, March 2011

Calke Abbey, Derbyshire March 2011

After lunch of soup and the lovely Sussex pasties, and the excitement of photographing Coprinus pseudoradiatus in the dung,  mentioned in the previous blog, we moved on.  It wasn't too long before I spotted a pinkish looking fungus on a tree trunk.  I think it might be Peniophora lycii.  Definitely a delicate pink, encrusted but had some irregular patches. 

Also found a small solitary fungus growing side-ways out of a tree trunk.  Small cap no more than 2 cm diameter, mottled brown/rust colour.  Uneven margin, with very wide gills and a short slightly obese stem.  I cannot identify this at the moment.

Later in March I decided to move some dead leaves from a plant pot in my garden and hiding underneath were some tiny fungi.  Cap no more than 2 cm, rusty brown streaked with purple, particularly at the margin.

Has a delicate rusty brown ring three quarters from the bottom of the stem.  At the moment I am unsure of its identity. 

All of these can be viewed on Browse 3.

Received an email from a student (Ruth Gaona), studying Biology at the University of Wisconsin La Crosse.  She requested permission to use one of my photographs of Jew's Ear (Auricularia auricula-judae) for a specific project.  Here is the link to this website
http://bioweb.uwlax.edu/bio203/2011/gaona_ruth/nutrition.htm 
This is a very informative and detailed piece of work for anyone wishing to learn more about Jew's Ear.