As a last post relating to 2012, this photo of Flammulina velutipes, Winter Fungus or Velvet Shank, looks appropriate. The frost has frozen the caps through to their core, and the stems have become brittle as a result leading to a few caps breaking off the stems. The other caps survived well to continue to develop after defrosting.
Archive for the ‘Fungus growth 2012’ Category
Winter Fungus, Flammulina velutipes
Posted in Fungus growth 2012 on January 7, 2013| Leave a Comment »
Tubaria conspersa
Posted in Fungus growth 2012 on January 2, 2013| Leave a Comment »
I was a bit surprised to see that this was the first time that I had pinned down this species as being in Abney Park Cemetery. It has been a name that has come up quite often. It was growing 28.11.2012 in moss over a stone path edging. A little cap, not especially bright and in dark conditions it was easy to overlook. Under a hand lens the brown surface shows to have a light fibrous top surface left over from the original veil. The brown intensity varies in zones across the radius, more easily seen when the cap is in wet conditions. The tan gills contrast with a slim sinuous reddish stem. The foot of the stem is covered in white fibers.
Trichaptum abietinum
Posted in Fungus growth 2012 on November 22, 2012| Leave a Comment »
From the top this looks a pale bracket with a green covering of algae. There are lines of brown peeking through the green fibrous/hairy surface, but it could be several different species…. right until I picked one and turned it over. The underside is a wonderful violet near the edge, and it fades to a brown near the wood. Tiers of this small, thin bracket were on a wood pile of Bhutan Pine wood. That underside violet with pores can only be Trichaptum abietinum. I don’t know how long it has been there, I may well have overlooked it before and the wood has been there for a few years, but this is the first time it has been identified in Abney Park.
Hebaloma sacchariolens
Posted in Fungus growth 2012 on November 21, 2012| Leave a Comment »
I thought this had been recorded in Abney a long time ago, but no. When I found this cap I realised the previous identification was wrong, but this is correct. I am grateful to the Londonfungi guys who helped me out here. It is a tricky area that seems to be still evolving. The cap is short and stout and smells sweet. The cap is a pale tan colour with a white edge. The identification really needs a microscope. There are other caps in Abney Park that look exactly the same but the microscopic details don’t match, and as yet they are unidentified.
Coprinopsis marcescibilis
Posted in Fungus growth 2012 on November 21, 2012| Leave a Comment »
It’s a while ago now, on 11.11.2012, that these were growing. They are the youngest caps of Coprinopsis marcescibilis that I have seen, and worthy of noting here. The veil is still breaking on the cap edges and the stems are covered with scales, which is a fleeting phase in their appearance. I’ve updated the species notes and added them to the annual photos of fungus and slime molds.
Dictydiaethalium plumbeum
Posted in Fungus growth 2012 on October 19, 2012| 1 Comment »
On Oct 7th I wrote a blog about finding an orange slime mold that was definitely a Dictydiaethalium species but didn’t quite fit with the description of D. plumbeum. I am delighted to say that David Mitchell (slime mold expert, not comedian) has let me know that it is definitely D. plumbeum. My caution in this case was unfounded. To see the original blog please click here. Thank you David.
Trichia varia, a slime mold
Posted in Fungus growth 2012 on October 19, 2012| 1 Comment »
This slime mold is everywhere in Abney Park at the moment. There is scarcely a wet piece of wood anywhere that doesn’t have its own colony of these tiny round, sessile (no stalks) growths. I managed to get a photo of the elators, which are part of the internal structure, and so characteristic that it nails the identification. It has banding around the outer part, which is in the form of 2 spirals. They are fairly flat on one side and ridges on the other.
Chlorophyllum rhacodes, Shaggy Parasol.
Posted in Fungus growth 2012 on October 19, 2012| 2 Comments »
Chlorophyllum rhacodes is a large, elegant, white cap with white, fibrous scales over the cap and dark brown to light brown scales breaking up with growth, especially towards the center. The essential part of the cap, from an identification point of view, is the ring on the stem. The outer part of the ring is double, the lower part is simpler and flopier, the upper part has a fringe of white pointed scales.
I have made a whole series of notes about this. It is an obvious cap which tends to grow in groups at the path edge this time of year. There have been a series of clustered groups flattened this year by someone visiting Abney Park on a daily basis, and who apparently thinks it is a good idea to deliberately tread on fungi in a nature reserve. Despite this I have gleaned enough information to be able to extend my notes to really pin down the formation of the ring during the various growth stages. There may be slight overkill in the notes now, but all the possible information about the species is there.
Pluteus nanus
Posted in Fungus growth 2012 on October 19, 2012| Leave a Comment »
This was growing in a very wet, hollow, old stump. The wood was so rotten I picked it out with a piece of wood by pressure of my fingernails. The gills were in bad condition, and eventually I found one pleurocystidia (large cell on the gill surface that is big enough to be above the spore producing basidia). That one cell means it was Pluteus nanus. It is one of a wood feeding/decaying/recycling that is active in producing spores at this time of year. The cap is brown and through a hand lens it is venose in the middle and minutely bumpy elsewhere. It is the first time it has been identified in Abney park.
Link to species notesPluteus umbrosus, Velvet Shield.
Posted in Fungus growth 2012 on October 12, 2012| Leave a Comment »
In all the time I have been looking round Abney not a year has gone by without Pluteus umbrosus growing. Not often does it look this good though. A superb specimen at the peak of its condition, just opened with a lovely white edge. I just wanted to share it with you. The pattern of the brown scales that sit with upright points on the cream background is particularly striking.
Abney Fungi 