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.

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

Birch Wood on a cloudy Sunday

I spent some time with Toby reviewing Birch Wood. There about two and a half hours, moving very slowly.

We started at the Ash tree by the path entrance, and up in the canopy there was some dead twiggery and a hung up broken off branch, with the oak tree behind. I am still worried about the pedestrians on this footpath.

There are some large Sweet Chestnuts to the northwest of the pond, variously damaged, possibly by squirrel.

There are some lovely tall "valley Alders" just by the main streamside, with mophead top shapes, but these are intermixed with a lot of tall Ash with a bit of dieback.

I added a moderate sized Oak towards the north as a notable tree but didn't get a good position fix.

I thought there were likely to be some large Birches and Cherries on the northern boundary that might be worth recording, away from the path, beyond the three Birches at the path junction.

There are a few Hornbeams mainly in the north, of various sizes.

As you move south through the mixed woods there is a patch of about half a dozen large tall Beeches.

Just to the south the tall trees change to a mix of Ash, Oak and Sweet Chestnut.

There must be half a dozen large Sweet Chestnut coppice stools on either side of the path by the eastern entrance. These, with the Beeches to the southern gate, are probably the most ancient trees in the remaining wood.

Clowes Wood, The Blean

Lots of cars in the car park, and people along the paths. Frost-edged leaves and few birds to be seen.

The Grove, Teston

This smallish patch of woodland greatly repays a closer look, as it is a good mix of trees including at least two huge Sweet Chestnuts at the eastern edge.

It is nice to find a few fungi around, and today I was lucky enough to find two species of Stereum, in the group known as Crust Fungi.

The first species is Stereum hirsutum, the Hairy Curtain Crust, which is perhaps one of the commonest observed Basidiomycota in the UK. The highly tiered brackets are quietly colourful and easy to spot on branches and trunks on the forest floor.

The second species is Stereum gausapatum, the Bleeding Oak Crust, although I actually have no idea what branch it was on, on this occasion.

Ryarsh Wood

A slow amble with Monty today, and a few

Lakenheath Fen - The Reserve

Plenty of Ruddy Darters along the track towards Fen View. I do not THINK I saw any Common Darters, which was quite a surprise to me!

Here is an immature male rather, perhaps, than a female, I think, on balance. However, this is just based on my impression of the tail shape:

It is definitely a Ruddy Darter, as it has the frons side line, the blackish T-mark back from the collar, and entirely black legs, and more solid black markings along the middle of S8-9. I think my memory was was that it was also quite small, with a fairly short abdomen. 

Duke of Burgundy and Dingy Skipper at Denge Wood

This was a brilliant British Butterfly Conservation Society Kent Branch trip, and it was particularly nice to see Peter and Margaret again.

I stopped at the pull-in in the Northern half of the woods first, and found a nice Nomad Bee, Nomada flava or panzeri, generally regarded as two common but indistinguishable species.

There was also a lovely Common Carder Bumblebee, Bombus pascuorum close by, nectaring on the Yellow Archangel.

This is a better photo of the Yellow Archangel, Lamium galeobdolon, just further along.

Sometimes early Hazel leaves show these purple markings, I think.

There was also a neat spider,

The group did see some Dingy Skippers, including a fresh mating pair, but I only caught a glimpse of this apparently very worn individual:

There were quite a few Green Tiger Beetles, Cicindela campestris, on the paths. Both of these appear to be males, as you can see at least the ivory-coloured left-hand mandibles quite clearly. The second male has fewer cream spots on the elytra.

There was a nice Rove Beetle on a bonfire site on Bonsai Bank, seemed to be way out of the damp habitat associated with this genus, particularly Paederus riparius, but it might still be Paederus littoralis I suppose, or maybe another species.

Throughout the day we saw Brimstone Butterflies, Gonopteryx rhamni, and I caught this battered male(?) trying to snack on a primrose flower.