This is a white or cream encrusting growth with a minutely wrinkled surface that looks like jigsaw shapes interlinked, each lobed tiny section fits into the surrounding lobed sections. It takes a hand lens to see this. Most of the growth is encrusting, growing round the underside of dead branches or twigs. When the angle of the wood becomes too steep up the sides of the wood a small bracket grows sideways. The brackets are only small, up to a maximum of 1cm out from the wood and form a line of continuous bracket along the length of the growth. Where new growth is developing the edge shows fringing.
Archive for February, 2011
Byssomerulius corium, Netted Crust.
Posted in Fungus growth 2011 on February 28, 2011| Leave a Comment »
Link to species notesThe beginning of the spring flowers.
Posted in Abney Park latest changes. on February 23, 2011| Leave a Comment »
A couple of daffodils are out and have been for about a week. Some of the more developed buds in some patches would have been open by now but for them being eaten, maybe by slugs (I have seen slugs out and about already). Also out are the sweet violets, (these are the perfumed flowers that used to be sold for penny bunches for their perfume).
Trametes hirsuta, Hairy Bracket
Posted in Fungus growth 2011 on February 19, 2011| Leave a Comment »
This is a different presentation to last timeI found it. It previously was growing along a split in bark as one line of brackets, here it is tiered, smaller and younger. It is still distinctly hairy.
Link to species notesSistotrema brinkmannii
Posted in Fungus growth 2011 on February 18, 2011| Leave a Comment »
This is an encrusting fungus that was growing along the downward and vertical cracks and faces of rotting wet poplar wood. It seems to grow almost anywhere. The description on the Basidiomycota Checklist gives it as “Habitat: On a wide range of substrata including decayed deciduous and conifer wood and bark, old fungal basidiomes, decayed cloth, discarded shoes, coconut matting, fern debris and decayed Gladiolus corms.”
It is only really distinguishable with a microscope. When growing, it looks like a thin white covering, a hand lens provides a view of knots of growth that look downward facing, just. There are a lot of white encrusting fungi like this. It is not easily seperable from the wood and feels waxy when rubbed. The edges are clean cut or fibrous.
Link to species notesCrepidotus cesatii
Posted in Fungus growth 2011 on February 18, 2011| Leave a Comment »
A small bracket shaped cap, that was growing along a small dead trunk. It had thin flesh with comparitively broad gills. The cap surface was mainly hairless but round the narrow attachment to the wood it was hairy. It began white but matured to be a bit on the dingy side of cream. The edge stayed white and it was distinctly scalloped. The gills matured to a dark cream.
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Hypoxylon rubiginosum, Rusty Woodwarts
Posted in Fungus Blogs, Fungus growth 2011 on February 15, 2011| Leave a Comment »
This is an encrusting fungus that grows on barkless wood, in this case on an old ash trunk. It can be greyish when it begins to grow, but it settled down to a rust brown colour. The growth here is thin, maybe because it is young-ish it hasn’t developed the ‘warts’ which it can have. These are rounded bumps on the surface. Here it is quite flat, although minutely rough in texture.
Link to photos of fungi and slimemolds 2011
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The lower photo is the spores in their asci beside the sterile paraphysis seen under a microscope (died blue).
Teddy on a grave
Posted in Abney Park latest changes. on February 14, 2011| Leave a Comment »
I have come across many unusual things in Abney, abandoned items, car seats, clothing etc. This one is about tthe cutest. I thought I would share it with you.
Phylloporia ribis
Posted in Fungus Blogs, Fungus growth 2011 on February 9, 2011| Leave a Comment »
This was first found by Russell Miller a while ago and sent for checking by Kew. It was the first time it had been found on a hawthorn tree. It is still growing at the base of the same ancient hawthorn. The upper surface of the brackets are dark brown and ridged with lines of growth. At the edge the new growth is reddish, as is the minutely pored underside. The upper brackets have developed patches of this reddish growth on the top of the brackets which is unusual. Maybe this is something to do with the parasitic encrusting (unidentified) growth that appeared on it at the end of last year and is now well into decline. It grows in tiers of linked brackets.
A rare day of sun.
Posted in Abney Park latest changes. on February 8, 2011| Leave a Comment »
I managed to walk round today and Abney is slowly coming to life again. It is very dry, so no fungus beyond the permenant tough structures, but the bird life is buzzing. A green woodpecker was noisily touring the tree tops, with pairs of great spotteds hurtling about in mating rituals. A mixed crowd of long tailed tits, blue tits, great tits and an odd chaffinch was busy feeding. Robins were squaring up to each other for territorial show downs in the shrubbery while the higher ash trees was host to a similar show down between groups of magpies and crows. A bit of sun and it is all happening.
Link to February 2011 Photos of Abney
Abney Fungi 