Winter Cress, Barbarea

The Fairlawne field just before the Cricket Bat Willow plantation has thousands of a Barbarea plant on it, about 25 - 30 cm high.

The fruit \are curved initially but appear to straighten up and also become more appressed when mature.

The styles may lengthen slightly as the fruit mature, but the longest one I measured was still no more than 2 mm long. Equally the longest fruit I have measured so far was no more than 40 mm, (4 cm).The pedicel was stou, definitely not more slender than the fruits themselves.

The flowers were about 5 mm when measured across, with the petals about twice the length of the sepals,

The uppermost leaves were quite lobed at the base, so it is unlikely to be B. vulgaris or B. stricta.

The leaves tasted quite sour, so it is unlikely to be B. verna.

Crepis vesicaria var. taraxacifolia. The Beaked Hawkweed.

Ecology: A usually biennial herb, sometimes annual or perennial, of lightly mown or grazed grassland on roadsides, lawns, railway banks and in waste places. Lowland.

Status: Neophyte

Trends: In Britain, this species was first recorded in 1713 in Kent. It spread rapidly, reaching the west coast of Ireland in 1896. It is now the commonest yellow composite in flower on roadsides in S. Britain and S. Ireland in May. It has failed to spread far into N. England, and the first authentic record from Co. Durham was not made until 1951. There are many more records in W. England, Wales and Ireland than in the 1962 Atlas.

World Distribution: Native of the Mediterranean region and S.W. Asia.

Found on the A26 verge opposite the college entrance. Look for the basal purple flushing, the orange striping on the outside of the petals, and the general downiness of the plant.

Silverleaf fruit bodies possibly

On a small log by the old farmhouse moat, Fairlawne land.

Andrena sp burrow

Amazing burrow of one of the mining bees, Andrena sp. Found in their 100s on the path surface on Fairlawne land.

Birch woodwart

In Dene Park the other day I came across a medium-small standing Birch trunk with lots of these brown to black lumpy fruiting bodies bursting out of its bark. This is the Birch Woodwart, Annulohypoxylon multiforme, aka Jackrogersella multiformis, a fungus in the Pyrenomycete group of Ascomycetes, most commonly noted on Birch although it occurs on a range of deciduous trees. Another species of Dickrogersella exists in two different forms, on Beech and Oak respectively.

The fruiting body is rather formless at first, often an ochre-brown in colour, and as it ages it darkens, and starts to form these multiple black perithechial bumps, with papillate (sometimes in a little depression) ostioles or spore-releasing holes. It would be interesting to do a cross-section to see the perithecia.

http://pyrenomycetes.free.fr/hypoxylon/html/Hypoxylon_multiforme.htm

https://www.nina.no/english/Fields-of-research/Projects/Pyrenomycetes

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.