More Dene Park crusts

I wonder whether this is an example of Stereum rugosum, with its largely resupinate nature, slightly turned up edges and fairly uniform pinkish colour?

If so it should be multi-layered as it is perennial. I so wish I had scratched it - maybe I did, but unsuccessfully?

I don't know the species of tree unfortunately, but it looks a bit hazel-ish..

 

This one is very pale, but I don't know anything else that has such a hairy upper surface, so I am assuming that this is yet another colour variation of Stereum hirsutum, (Willd.) Gray, the Hairy Curtain Crust or False Turkey Tail.

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.

Hornbeam leafminers at Dene Park.

Had a lovely walk in Dene Park with Monty, taking a moderately careful look for Hornbeam leafmines. The weather was slightly cool, but nice and sunny - a lovely early autumn day.

None of the fairly accessible and easy to find Stigmella mines from today seemed particularly fresh, so I assume are from the June-July activity. This reduces the accuracy of the ID from species to genus, but almost all the mines seemed fairly thin and had some tendency to follow the leaf veins or midrib for at least part of their activity, so the best of my guesses would be Stigmella microtheriella, one of the two commoner species, and the one noted for following veins. The frass pattern has apparently deteriorated over time, so is now less useful for diagnosis I would say, and there were no larvae present to examine. The remaining frass pattern did appear to be restricted to the centre of the mine as opposed to filling the full width of the mine. However there is another quite likely possibility, Stigmella floslactella, which is equally thin, but rather less tendency for following the leaf veins, and where the frass width initially fills the early stage of the mine. The critical distinguishing feature is the relative thickness of the frass to mine diameter in the early stages. Both species could well be present!

On a few of the smaller leaves there were some notably white mines, which did seem significantly broader and much more convoluted - there is some minor possibility that they were Stigmella carpinella, a rarer mine in the UK, and not specifically noted to be in Kent on the UK Flymines site. There was no frass and there were no larvae to check, so these must remain entirely uncertain, especially as even David Gardiner's 2010 records were not validated.

Dene Park, 22.09.2017

It will be interesting to wait for the September - October activity, if it isn't there already, to see if diagnosis is any the easier slightly later in the year!

There were also some Phyllonorycter types, some on the underside between the veins, and some (more rounded usually) on the upperside centred above one or more principal veins.

Some of the ones on the underside could perhaps be Phyllonorycter tenerella and if so they should have a fairly strong single crease, and extend from midrib to leaf edge, or nearly so. None I saw completely filled these criteria, but none were fresh, so that might be the explanation. Others could be either Phyllonorycter messaniella (which may also have one strong crease, perhaps forked at the end) or Phyllonorycter ulmifoliella (which may have more and smaller creases), both of which are apparently less extended in length.

This old mine below is on the underside, bounded clearly by the veins, but not long enough to be typical P. tenerella, leaving one of the other two as the most likely candidates for this and the great majority of the underside mines seen on this site. However ulmifoliella is rarely mentioned apart from the UK leafminers site, and although this would indicate that messaniella is the most likely species by a short head, all options must remain open. ACTUALLY this is a mine of Stigmella possibly microtheriella that has "cut out" an oblong of leaf with its travels.

(I went back on Sunday, the 24th, and this time found two possibly fresher mines on the underside of the leaves - oval, but loose, between the veins, about half the distance between midrib and leaf edge, apparently empty, with no visible creases, neither single nor multiple. Therefore I was no further forward - except the continuing gut feeling that the mines are not tenerella, because they are too short).

The leafmine frequently found on the upperside of the leaf is much easier as it is the only upperside Phyllonorycter listed, and so keys out on UK Leafminers as Phyllonorycter esperella (Goeze, 1783), a leafminer specific to Hornbeam in the UK. This species, the adult moth of which is known as the Dark Hornbeam Midget, also occurs throughout mid to southern Europe across to the Near East, and as well as the Hornbeam, it also attacks the Hop Hornbeam, Ostrya carpinifolia where that tree occurs abroad.

This I think is a very common mine in Kent, and I generally find it whenever I look carefully at Hornbeam leaves in woodland, or even quite urban trees (e.g. Hadlow College). I am fairly sure I also saw some in Ryarsh Wood last week. The ones I saw today were generally quite young, relatively small and oval, over the centre of a principal vein. These larvae will have come from eggs laid by the second generation of adult moths, which were on the wing in August.

This one however (the only one found like this) is probably an older mine of this species, demonstrating the upward folding of the leaf as the tentiform mine ages and tightens.

I didn't see any sign of an Eriocraniid type mine today, a long splodgy mine on the edge of a leaf. Eriocrania chrysolepidella is also known as Paracrania chrysolepidella. I was surprised not to find it, given its apparent reasonably widespread (ukflymines) if local (uk leafminers) coverage in the UK, and some existing East Kent records. Nor did I find any Parornix or Bucculatrix mines.

A slow, very relaxed walk, and Monty had a lovely time breaking up sticks in the mud.

A breezy grey Broadwater with the warden

This amazing green wood stain is caused by Green Elf Cap fungi, Chlorociboria spp., and is one of the components of the famous intricate marquetry known as Tunbridge Ware.

Lots more information on Chlorociboria and Tunbridgeware on Tom Volk's page,

There is some incredibly rare Chalybeate wet woodland there with the iron staining the mud bright orange-red and the green Greater Tussock Sedge, standing bright green among the orange surrounds.

The ground flora in and around the muddy pools is springing into emerald life:

This dead hedge helps with health and safety, and also reduces the risk of dogs entering the water, which could cause a lot of ecological damage, as well as risking the dog itself becoming at the least very dirty and stinky!

The RSPB have some really good interpretation signs, informative with great visuals:

This log-pile is on one of the smaller heathy patches near the car-park with refuge patches close by - unfortunately clear of adders when we checked this morning!

Hamstreet Woods NNR

This was a great visit to the NNR with Phil to share my enthusiasm for both wildlife and photography.

Underneath a decaying log I found a disco fungus in the Ascomycetes, probably Mollisia and maybe Mollisia cinerea.

And a little further along the decaying wood there was a large red mite, very still!

There was a nice little white Springtail as well, but too out of focus.

On the top of a nearby stump was a possible Slime Mould, perhaps Lycogala terrestre.

On some of the birches we saw later there were some hoof or tinder fungus brackets, Fomes fomentarius, very common wherever there are Birch, or Beech further South I understand:

There were a few burrows about 15 mm diameter by the side of the main path. A large beetle perhaps?

Through the middle of the woods we came across some Wood Bittercress, Cardamine flexuosa, with 6 stamens in the flower and a lusher "jizz" to it than the Hairy Bittercress, Cardamine hirsuta.

Here is a nice photo of a Primrose, a Bluebell and a Wood Anemone all together!

There were also a few violets:

For birds, there were Chiffchaffs, Blackcaps, Blue Tits, Great Tits, Nuthatches, robins, Blackbirds, Songthrushes, Greater Spotted Woodpeckers, Green Woodpeckers, Jays, Jackdaws, Woodpigeons and a Sparrowhawk circling high above the wood.

We saw one of the less than a dozen mature Wild Service or Chequer trees in the Woods, and bemoaned the lack of young trees there. The bark is wonderfully craggy and beautifully if discretely coloured:

It has NOT moved from Sorbus into Torminaria, so remains Sorbus torminalis.

The hornbeam is breaking buds and the leaves are expanding rapidly.