Exidia thuretiana (Lev.) Fr.

In Dene Park, on the edge of the first Beech compartment I turned over a small branch and on the damp underside pressed against the soil surface I found what I think is the White Brain Fungus, Exidia thuretiana.  This photo, in natural light gives us some slightly blue and pinkish tones.

This closer photograph was flash assisted, but aperture controlled. It takes the tones out.

Here is another flash-enhanced sample. I think its fair to say that the margin is quite distinct here as expected, and the ridges are also at right angles to the margin, at least of the edge of the material.

 

Peniophora limitata and quercina perhaps

On the 22nd I found a crust that looked sufficiently like a rather decrepit version of Peniophora limitata for me to put it on the Fb page with a name, which Andy kindly agreed with. However it was on Oak wood (?) rather than Ash bark, so a little worrying there! |Importantly the margins did not lift.

On the 23rd I saw a crust on an overhanging oak branch above the Knight's Lodge path on the Beech compartment side. To me it looked thinner than the crust seen yesterday. There was much less blue-black staining, although the edges were turning up slightly showing the black under the edges and where the upper surface had apparently been lost there were patches of what looked like black under-surface material. The material was relatively well cracked with shallow cracks, not separating much, and I rather thought it was Peniophora quercina.

See the edges turning up, even if slightly, and the pattern of cracks.

Note the black underside exposed at the edges

The pattern may develop from individual patches.

Access Trail

This was on a long-dead Elm trunk along the Access Trail. Quite denticulate/papillate, with a slightly fluffy whitish margin. Lovely insulation around a wire effect!

A possible young Byssomerulius corium on a small branch by the Beech (Fagus sylvatica) shaw found on way back to The Forstal. Howver it could equally also be Basidioradulum radula.

This is also quite an interesting find - I think it just might be Byssomerulius asj well because under the hand-lens I could just see what appears to be the start of the wiggly undulations on the hymenophore. The hymenophore surface was a lovely light tan colour, but that layer appeared very thin, overlying a white felt-like fibrous layer that might just fit the description "un-encrusted". Overall the body is thin and was very easily sliced by my sharp knife, with no apparent "bleeding" at all.  The body edges are apparently turning up from the branchlet, even at this apparently young stage.

In the picture below you can see at the edges the white felt-like layer under the hymenophore.

Wood wart perhaps, possibly on Beech, and if so it might be the Beech Woodwart, Hypoxylon fragiforme, beside the Beech Shaw on the way back from the Access Trail by Hadlow.

Beetle hole I think into (or out of) the wood of the branchlet. One mm or perhaps two across. It is of course a whole little universe to be found in rotten wood.

Sevenoaks Wildlife Reserve

Birch Woodwart, Annulohypoxylon (Jackrogersella multiformis) multiforme, I think.

Unknown fungus

I found (somewhere?) this rather odd partial bracket, partial resupinate. The fruiting body came away by breaking the surface it was attached to. The poroid surface had highly irregular "trapezoidal" pores breaking out through the surface, quite shallow whitish tubes projecting from a rubbery tough and fibrous white flesh. The "cap" surface was a dark ochre brown that was softly downy with a hyaline fuzz, rather attractive when viewed through a hand-lens.

The poroid surface, apparently breaking through,

The downy cap, looking a bit closer

and an even closer view,

Back to Dene Park

This Stereum is the right colour and general appearance for Stereum rugosum. But who knows?

This crust is whitish over dark grey., but there doesn't seem to be an obvious possibility in the books.

This one might be a developing Split Pore-Crust, Schizopora paradoxa - or something else!

and a closer view:

and this is staining by one of the Green Elf-Cups I think

Comb Wood, Wittersham

A bimble around Wittersham, meeting Chris as the neophyte Tree Warden for the Parish. We had a look at some street trees, the Village Green and Comb Wood. Comb Wood was very muddy and a friendly dog-walker was saying that the trees are very subject to windblow because the soil is clay on the Isle of Oxney and the roots find it difficult to penetrate deeply into the regolith, so forming a shallow rootplate. There were certainly quite a lot of leaning trees!

We saw possible Schizopora paradoxa, rather broken down, demonstrating the range of colours from cream to ochre. We also came across some Witches/Warlock's Butter, Exidia, possibly Warlock's Butter, Exidia nigricans ( = plana). We should have had a closer look at that, to see the surface details.

We came across some brackets on a very rotting log that I thought were Ganoderma australe/adspersum. The top surface was very solid and tough. I counted about 1-3 pores per mm. There is some conflicting evidence about this, suggesting much smaller, more closely packed pores, maybe 5-6 pores per mm for both species.

Chris sent in a photo of another rotting log with a possible Stereum subtomentosum, and what was likely to be the asexual (anamorphic?) stage of Kretzschmaria deusta. Fantastic!

The fungus list for Comb Wood stands at:

Schizopora paradoxa, Split Porecrust

Exidia glandulosa, Witches' Butter 

Ganoderma australe, Southern Bracket

Daedaleopsis confragosa, Blushing Bracket

Stereum subtomentosum, Yellowing Curtain Crust

Kretzschmaria deusta, Brittle Cinder Fungus

Hymenoscyphus fraxineus, Ash Dieback  

High Brede Woods

Had a nice walk in quite cold but dry weather from the Eastern car park. There wasn't a huge amount about and not much birdsong. The woods are quite open, oddly enough with relatively little bramble.

There was quite a lot of lichen on the trunks, for example of the oak. Here is a grey Parmelioid type,

and a closer view of the above

which appears to be breaking down and going a bit pink.

A closer view

Tonbridge Sports Ground

Walking Toby down on the sports ground to play ball, I took a few pictures of the interesting trees around the edges of some of the pitches. This Ash has had its top snapped out, an absolute classic. I am going to assume this is purely storm damage.

On the fallen branches by the railway, I found one interesting looking minor branchlet, with something like a Peniophora crust on it. Some patches looked a pure chalky white (the ones on the top of the branchlet), and others (the nearer ones on the side of the branchlet) looked a rather pinky-grey off-white, However, when I looked at the pictures there were no pinky-grey patches to be picked out at all. Despite that, and the apparent lack of a dark underside, my best guess would still be something along the lines of Peniophora quercina.

A mashed oak a little further along, left as a monolith,

By the river heading back towards the car park there was this Birch that is in trouble, with some previous attacks by Fomitopsis betulina.

This is the broken off stalk of the Fomitopsis bracket.

This is where the majority of the mycelium of the Fomitopsis should be, hopefully found throughout the broken down trunk of the Birch. Fomitopsis is a brown rotter, and this might link to the brown black discolouration of the trunk.

Some of the Crack Willows have been worked on, which may have reduced the windage risks. Whether this has been a huge advantage in the longer term, is difficult to tell.