waxy crusts

 

The genus Vuilleminia, named after Paul Vuillemin, is characteristically in the UK considered to be 2 or 3 species of thin waxy crusts that occur beneath the bark of various trees. The commonest would be the very thin, often translucent but with violet tinges, non-cystidiate Vuilleminia comedens which is generally found on Oak, and the two less common lilac-toned but cystidiate Vuilleminia coryli almost always on Hazel, and the chalky-white Vuilleminia cystidiata found on Hawthorn normally. 

This lovely splash of colour along the Access Trail close to Hadlow Village is therefore very likely to be Vuilleminia coryli.  The thin crust is tightly covering the bare wood, and there are thin curled-up patches of bark visible on either side. It has that waxy look!

and in greater close-up, with a bit better light. The small white bumps and the slightly reddish edges of the crust and the red undersides of the freshly turned up bark do match many of the photos on-line.

Its a new species for me and a really gorgeous sight. I am so lucky to have found it!

Ochre Bracket, Trametes ochracea

 

The tan, almost orange in some lights, top, which was just a very slightly felty when magnified led me towards this less common Trametes species, Trametes ochracea, the Ochre Bracket, one that I keep on hoping to find, but rarely get even a hint of. 

Compared to Turkeytail, Trametes versicolor, the clearly thicker individual brackets in fused (not separate) tiers, creamy (not white) shaded pores with well-defined margins about 3-4 (not 4-5) per mm, white flesh with no dark line below the tomentum, and fairly broad attachment making the fruiting bodies quite difficult to pull away from the substrate supported this. This specimen was found on the cut end of a large Birch log in Styants Wood, but the species actually has a wide range of deciduous hosts, including Oak and Beech.

However by this time of year the mushroom fly larvae and others have had a field day and these brackets were in poor condition with a lot of slime and rot apparent. Measuring spore shape and size would help to confirm this less common species of Trametes, so this has to remain just a possible.