I have begun a set on flickr which will house my unknown species. Try as I might, I get stuck more often then I like. So far there is a Blue-grey slime mold. There will be more.
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Archive for October, 2010
Unknown fungi and slime molds.
Posted in Fungus Blogs on October 31, 2010| Leave a Comment »
Abney embracing Autumn
Posted in Abney Park latest changes. on October 31, 2010| Leave a Comment »
At the moment the hawthorns in particular are changing into autumn golds. Some trees have yet to move away from the summer green, but feels as if it won’t be too long before even they join in. It is not quite at its most glorious best yet, but it is not far off.
Entoloma rhodopolium, Wood Pinkgill
Posted in Fungus Blogs, Fungus growth 2010 on October 30, 2010| Leave a Comment »
A single cap was growing on a path edge among leaf litter and ivy, under ash and oak trees. It is a very elegant cap. The cap top tends to be grey/brown but becomes cream and opaque when dry. The stem is whitish with grey/brown tones. The gills begin pale and become pink. A sophisticated colour scheme. This one was 8.5cms tall (3 1/4 inches) and 5.3cms across (just over 2 inches) so medium sized.
.Mycena leptocephala, Nitrous Bonnet
Posted in Fungus Blogs, Fungus growth 2010 on October 30, 2010| Leave a Comment »
This is a dark Mycena. Mycena are just not my favorite group. They are generally small, they have white spore prints and there are a lot of them. This one had grey gills with a white edge, but it too had the white spore print. It was growing in its own, in richly composted soil, not quite on the usual wood (even buried wood). It had a dark colour in the cap and the stem. It didn’t produce milk or sap from the stem when it was finally broken. It had a nitrous smell when first collected that faded after a while. The spores were too small for the species but I still think it is this species.
Handkea excipuliformis, Pestle Puffball
Posted in Fungus Blogs, Fungus growth 2010 on October 27, 2010| Leave a Comment »
When I have found this before it has had a longer sterile stalk. The collected specimen was badly eaten, again, but intact examples were growing to give a guide to how long the stalk had been. It is an occasional fungus in Abney. The spores had a stalk-like piece attached to some of them, which is one of the features that define the species.
Ossicaulis lignatilis
Posted in Fungus Blogs, Fungus growth 2010 on October 27, 2010| Leave a Comment »
A strange grey growth of this has been identified by the wonderful Martyn Ainsworth at Kew. It is the first time I have found reference to a grey cap for this species, but it also had an unusual habit, staying inrolled at the edge for a long time among other foibles. I have now updated my notes to show the unusual growth.
Laccaria bicolor, Bicolored Deceiver
Posted in Fungus Blogs, Fungus growth 2010 on October 27, 2010| Leave a Comment »
This is a colourful cap. The gills when young are lilac/grey colour, that clashes wonderfully with the orange cap (with lighter fibers) and the slightly pinkish stem with the lilac fibers over the surface, especially in the lower part. The gill colour becomes pinkish/grey/orangy then paler, almost flesh coloured. It isn’t big, the ones I found were young would have expanded further but were up to 1.6cms across and 5cms high. They were single or in clustered groups of up to 6 caps.
Coniophora puteana, Wet Rot
Posted in Fungus Blogs, Fungus growth 2010 on October 26, 2010| Leave a Comment »
In a year when the wood has been wetter than usual for longer than usual, this is the only patch of wet rot that I have found, which is a lot less than usual. It is a recycler of dead wood so in a natural environment serves a useful function. It grows as an encrusting layer which has khaki/ochre/white patches. The edges are the white part and they tend to be very fibrous.
Pholiota limonella confirmed
Posted in Fungus Blogs, Fungus growth 2010 on October 25, 2010| 1 Comment »
I have heard back from Dr. Martyn Ainsworth, to give him his official title, Senior Researcher in Fungal Conservation at Kew, and that is as good as it gets, and he has confirmed that this is definitely Pholiota limonella. Fantastic! My thanks to him for for his help. It is another excuse to put the photo up on the site.
Chlorophyllum brunneum
Posted in Fungus Blogs, Fungus growth 2010 on October 23, 2010| Leave a Comment »
A new patch of these caps has been growing for a while. I found it first on 16.10.2010 and have been visiting it daily. The species can be sorted out by the ring on the stem, the spore size and the cystidia on the gills via a microscope. They take a while to develop. They show it to be C. brunneum. The spores are a bit on the narrow size, but the length is definitely long enough for the species. The cystidia and the ring are both right, so brunneum it is. I have updated my notes.
These are the caps as first seen. The brown covering splits as the cap expands to make the brown scales in the center of the mature caps.
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A still young cap. The scales are well on their way to developing, but the fibrous outer scales have still to get the room to form. The ring is still to split away from the cap. It happens in stages. The bottom flat area of the ring is already formed. The scaled outer area of the its under surface comes away from the cap in sections, creating the scales.
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Slightly older caps. The fibrous scales are well under way, but the final split of the ring that forms the upper surface has still not occurred.
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Abney Fungi 