Gymnosporangium confusum

Gymnosporangium confusum  Juniper Rust, (May 2013) (Nottinghamshire)

Friday 17th May 2013.  Not an ordinary day.  The previous day I'd received a text message from a 'fungi aware' friend that something was growing on her Juniper tree.  So, straight after work, I set off to view for myself and take some photographs.  This fungus was certainly different.  Growing in batches on the trunk and branches and not more than five feet off the ground.  Some of the fungus had developed a jelly like texture and was falling to the ground in little clumps. I took many photos including the jelly like substance in the grass. 

The fungus is difficult to describe.  It is mid-brown with mustard coloured powdery spores.  Slightly elongated tongue-shaped.


"In junipers (the primary hosts)  some species of the fungus form a ball like gall about 2–4 cm in diameter which produces a set of orange tentacle-like spore tubes called telial horns. These horns expand and have a jelly like consistency when wet. In other species the telia are produced directly from the bark of the juniper with no obvious gall formation or swelling^[2] such as in G. clarvariforme . The spores are released and travel on the wind until they infect an apple, pear, or hawthorn tree."  Source Wikipedia.

After some research, it appears that a pear tree two years previously in an adjacent garden had been infected with Rust and cut down.  This now leaves the question of where will the spores travel within the next 4-6 weeks and what will it infect.  I will write an up-date if monitoring produces a result.

With grateful thanks to RR for his help in doing a spore analysis which enabled a positive identification and for undertaking research about Juniper trees so that we could come to the conclusion that all the facts fitted together ie this was a G. confusum which was growing on a specific Juniper which was a Chinese Juniper.
Even more exciting for us both is that this fungus has never previously been recorded in Nottinghamshire so will be added to the database.

A big thank you also to J O for allowing me to visit the garden and to take photographs.

Photographs of this fungus can now been see on Browse 4, Thumb nail panel 25 at
www.fungiworld.co.uk

A Black Fomes fomentarius February 2013

A black Fomes fomentarius

The same friend RE who kindly took me to Annersley Wood, Nottinghamshire and had the pleasure of seeing exposed mycelium on a dead log,  also witnessed the same day, as did I,  another special sight.

This being an exceedingly shiny black hoof-shaped bracket. It was solitary,  looked artificial and as though it had been stuck on a silver birch tree as a joke.  I tapped it expecting it to break off, but it was solid and resembled a shiny piece of highly lacquered plastic.  I'd never seen anything like this.
When back home I did some research and it seems that Fomes fomentarius can turn dark black when exposed to very prolonged wet and cold weather such as was the case during the Winter of 2013.  Some of the darker fruit bodies were previous referred to as Fomes nigricans but more recently fall under fomentarius.


This image can be viewed on Browse 4.

Fungal Conservation - International Society for Fungal Conservation

I have recently become aware of the International Society for Fungal Conservation. 

This Society was established in August 2010 and currently has 300 members in 60 different countries.  It is probably the first Society in the world that has been set up solely for the purpose of the global protection of fungi.

If you wish to learn more about why fungi need protecting then please visit
www.fungal-conservation.org 

Ramaria stricta

Ramaria stricta

Snow, snow and more snow.  This Winter has not been favourable for finding fungi - the ground either being covered in snow or frost and the air temperature being too dry.  Regardless, there was a sudden overnight thaw and so I set off for a tramp around the Nottingham University Park.  It was still bitterly cold, but I decided to persevere.  It paid off.  I was just about to give up when thought I would wander along a minor road lined with shrubs, conifers nearby,  covered in tree bark.  It was there I spotted a coral fungus.  A huge clump and somehow it had been preserved under the snow the previous day.  Very tall, beige with lilac hues.  This was different to other coral fungus I'd seen before.  I took some photographs and in my excitement and probably because I was so cold, I forgot to take a sample.

I checked my books and had a feeling it was Ramaria Stricta, (Upright Coral) as the height was about right and it was very vertical, so sent the photos over to my contact RR at the Notts Fungi Group.  He thought the same but wanted to do a spore test.  So I said I would collect a sample.  The first chance I got was prior to my evening Nordic Walking class. So in the pitch black on hands and knees, dodging security, as my car was illegally parked, I managed to find it and collect a decent sample in a plastic container.  Safely kept in the fridge over night I handed over the sample to RR the following evening.  The spore test confirmed R. stricta
so a great result.  In some parts of the country this is vulnerable and is on the red data list but it seems it is not so uncommon in Nottinghamshire.  All worth the effort as the photo has also been added to Notts Fungi Group website.

Also, as mentioned earlier in a previous blog, the photographs are on the website of Mycelium found on a log that had a chunk of bark missing, thus exposing the usually hidden mycelium.

These photographs can now be viewed on Browse 4.

Mycelium

What is Mycelium?

Briefly, mycelium is a thread-like material that usually remains hidden underground in soil or under the surface of tree logs.  It is known as the vegetative part of the fungus.  It is from mycelia that the fruit body of a fungus forms. Mycelium may be minute in size or vast.

(For example in East Oregon mycelium spread covered the size of 1,665 football pitches and was approximately 2,200 years old. Source: Paul Stamets, Wikipedia.).

It is via the mycelium that a fungus absorbs nutrients also it assists in the process of decomposition of plant material.

Yesterday I saw exposed mycelium because a slice of dead tree log had fallen to the ground, thus exposing a network of mycelium strands.  It was a truly fascinating sight as it gave me an insight as to just what goes on underground and out of view of the human eye.  The invisible work that goes on prior to the fruiting body (the mushroom) surfacing.

  I was lucky enough to see this at Annersley Wood, Nottinghamshire.  It was raining steadily, was cold, but after the recent prolonged snow the foliage was bright green.  RE had kindly offered to drive me to this wood, which was new territory for me.  Afterwards, we tucked into a very welcome and gorgeous chicken casserole, so thank you for that.

This photograph will appear on Browse 4 in the future.

Crepidotus variabilis

Crepidotus variabilis (Variable oysterling)

Visited Shipley Country Park, Derbyshire, during November 2012 accompanied by a friend who also enjoys the Shipley Woods as much as myself.  Such an atmospheric wood the majority of trees being ancient beech.  We always come away feeling peaceful.

There are also many dead beech trunks lying around and on one such log I found my first ever
Crepidotus variabilis.  Not very big only up to 2cm diam. -  a dirty looking white kidney-shape.
The texture being felty/hairy and just a small cluster of three or four.  The gills are particularly impressive in their beauty - being distant and very decurrent..

Also on the same log were a little cluster of Calocera cornea.  A maximum of 2 cm in height and very difficult to photograph. Awl shaped and not forked.  Bright yellow when fresh and then turning more orange in maturity.  Felt tough and gelatinous.

These photographs can now be seen on Browse 4.

Pholiota adiposa and Berwick-upon-Tweed

Pholiota adiposa and a return to Berwick-upon-Tweed October 2012


It's not very often I return to visit a place twice in the space of six months but I found Berwick-upon-Tweed so tranquil and soothing that I just had to go back and experience it again.  October being prime fungi season, so hoped to find a few on my walkabouts.  A preview of the weather forecast didn't bode well, with yet more rain on the way, and yes it was raining on the journey, and the view from the train window showed bales of hay and straw marooned on little islands surrounded by vast areas of water-logged fields.

It rained persistently and very heavily for two out of my three full days and it looked jolly miserable, but I was still happy.  Breakfast and a new guest at the table. A travel writer for the Times doing a piece on weekend breaks.  He asked me why I liked Berwick to which I replied - it's a good place to come if you want to get off the treadmill of life!  What are you doing here he asked?  I'm taking photographs of British Fungi I told him.  He put down his knife and fork and said, well I've never been told that before!

I came across Tubifera ferruginosa by chance.  Had walked around the Ramparts in the heavy rain and took shelter under a small tree so I could stand and observe the rough sea with a huge Spring Tide.
On the tree trunk were 3 orange Tubifera f.  Quite small up to 5 cm, and irregularly shaped, so I took photos in perspective and a close-up showing the individual sporgangia.

On the one day without rain and some morning sunshine, I took the bus over the River Tweed to Spittal.
Did a partial cliff walk and at the top near a path in short grass,  I found  a few (I think) Hygrocybe ceracea.  Very bright yellow, waxy and greasy texture.  Very small cap maximum 4 cm diam with no odour.

A little disappointed not to have found more fungi I decided on my last afternoon to have one final look around.  The rain didn't cease until 3pm and the light was very bad but I still went out searching.
Was just about to give up when I approached a few trees tucked away in a very damp and moss covered area deep down below the ramparts.  At first I thought I was looking at Pholiota squarrosa which I had previously seen and photographed some years ago in Scotland.  But these were different.  Still the same characteristic stem with smooth surface above the delicate ring and bands of rust scales below.
But the colour and texture of the cap was different.  The scales did not over hang the margin edge and the ring seemed more fragile.  Also the margin edge was not so in-rolled. Depending on which fungi book you read the colour of the gills varies from light buff initially to deep rust on maturity.  So I believe this might be Pholiota adiposa.  Certainly not squarrosa.  A race against time as the light was fading fast and managed to get some photographs, but the camera has not quite captured the colours that I saw.

These photographs can now be viewed on Browse 4.