Egghead Mottlegill, Panaeolus semiovatus, Letham, Scotland

Egghead Mottlegill, Panaeolus semiovatus

Mottlegill,  it seems originates from mottled gills due to uneven maturity of black gills, thus giving a mottled appearance.

My first ever trip to Scotland during the month of May.  I normally spend 5 days there during either August or October to take advantage of the new fungi season but this year my friends had moved to a new dwelling, and a new location, 10 miles inland from Arbroath, and so were keen to have me visit.  So I kept my expectations in realistic proportions, erring on the view that I probably wouldn't find anything much.

How wrong I was.  Within 2 hours of arriving at their new abode, and whilst out on a brief dog walk around grass footpaths around the village, I spotted something in dried up manure in someone's garden.  Thought at first it was a Coprinus but on closer inspection realised it was an Egghead Mottlegill.  Its structure and beauty captivated me; in particular its clay coloured shiny cap, and its unusual creased and wrinkled appearance.   Firstly, I saw a mature group, and then a single fresh specimen.  Can see why it is called Egghead.  The shape is like a hard-boiled egg with the bottom chopped off.  The clay and light buff-coloured cap had a light dusting of black gill spores smeared in the wrinkled structure.  Also on the stem there were sprinkles of black spores. 

Taking a photograph of the fresh single Egghead was challenging.  The sun was in the wrong position, kneeling in dung is not my favourite past time, and also the house owners Jack Russell dog was yapping at me a bit too close for comfort - still all worth it to capture this lovely fungus.

This can now be viewed on Browse 4 on fungiworld.co.uk

The Fungi, Exhibition at Whitby Museum, Pannett Park, Whitby, North Yorkshire, UK June-November 2013

The Fungi,
Exhibition at Whitby Museum,
Whitby,
North Yorkshire, UK

June- November 2013

I am happy to report that in celebration of Whitby Naturalists' Club Centenary, it is hosting an exhibition entitled The Fungi - a Celebration of Nature's Recyclers.  The theme was chosen because Fungi "form an incredibly important and key part of the natural world.  Without them we could not live on this planet".

Some other important facts extracted from the exhibition information sheet are:

- Fungi are endangered.  They are just as vulnerable as animals and plants to the threats of habitat destruction, pollution, climate change and persecution.

- The UK has no permanent exhibition about fungi.  None of Britain's great natural history museums has a gallery devoted to fungi.

- It is thought that at least 1.4 million more species may still be undiscovered and about 100,000 have been described.

- Fungi are beautiful.

I am very pleased and proud to have been asked to contribute 28 photographs to this exhibition, along side other photographers from the UK and around the world.  I visited the Whitby Museum last week to see for myself.  It is a very impressive exhibition, being educational and entertaining at the same time. I sincerely hope and believe that fungi will, with time, get the appreciation and protection that they deserve.

Red-belted bracket (Fomitopsis pinicola) and Willow bracket (Phellinus igniarius)

Fomitopsis pinicola

Other names for F.pinicola is Red-belted bracket or Red-banded polypore.  Quite appropriate really as this hoof-shaped bracket has a reddish/rust extended rim around the margin.  This bracket does resemble in shape and texture Fomes fomentarius but grows more steeply. It can reach a size of 30 cm.   It is grooved and wrinkled. The  Fungi of Britain and Europe book states that "it has a resinous covering which melts in heat" and this can be tested using a match!  It smells strongly acidic and grows either in small groups or can be solitary.  Usually found on broad-leaved trees or conifers.  May be seen all year but this is a rare bracket.

If I have interpreted the FRDBI records correctly then it has only been recorded 40 times in the UK.
I was very kindly sent a photograph by DC taken in Gloucestershire and was the second recording in that county.  This photograph can now be viewed on Browse 4 of  fungiworld.co.uk

Phellinus igniarius

During May I came across my first ever sighting of a Willow bracket.  Having never seen one before I was blessed with seeing on the same day, a young example and then later a mature example. 
The young Willow bracket is very different in appearance to how it matures.  Being hoof-like, and bracket-like, rusty brown, but when mature being grey with a cracked appearance.  Mostly seen on willow but also sometimes on broad-leaved trees.  This can also be seen on Browse 4.

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.