The Cauliflower Fungus, Sparassis crispa

 

In Bod Petryal, at the base of a Scots Pine, of course!

A brown rotter, potentially causing problems, starts off a reddish brown colour and turns pale, then falls or is perhaps ripped apart by animals

Crusts towards Hookwood

 

Walked slowly parallel to Puttenden Road towards Hookwood Farm. All within 100 m of edge of the car park.

This is a very easily detached, rubbery/elastic and quite coherent layer of pores. On the underside of an unknown fallen branch half buried in the litter layer of the forest floor.

Diplomitoporus lindbladii is just one candidate in the field!

 

Crusts in Fox Wood

 

This waxy looking surface on a dead oak branch of a tree on the north boundary of Fox Wood among the line of Hornbeams suggests the decorticating fruiting body (basidiome) of the "crust fungus" Vuilleminia comedans (s.l.). It is described as soft, jelly-like and slippery. There are several photos on the internet showing this sort of colouring and thickness of the basidiome, as opposed to the translucent and very thin layers of the (apparently?) early stages. Presumably we are not talking about a parasitisation by a Hypomyces species? 

The decortication seems very effective, allowing the basidiome to release its basidiospores and presumably colonise new "branch territory"! This species is said to be widespread and very common, so I obviously need to look for it more effectively. I imagine it is recycling the nutrients back into the leaf litter, perhaps ultimately for the tree's benefit. 

There were extensive growths of Schizopora paradoxa on some of the dead trunks of Hornbeam:

and a closer view of the above:

This next should be Eichleriella now Heteroradulum deglubens, despite being found on Birch. 

A good pinky tinged crust with a white margin on first sight, it blushes instantly to a dark red when rubbed - and also has bluish patches, as stated in Hugill and Lucas. Not commonly photographed in the FB groups at all despite its attractiveness, in my opinion.

Phlebia uda KOH test

I went back to Fox Covert and retrieved a section of the branch with suspected Phlebia uda fruiting bodies on it from last week.

I applied 4% KOH to the crust surface after a few hours drying of the branch (will return it to the woods tomorrow). Label 1 is the area of crust surface where the chemical was applied, it fairly rapidly turned dark (little bit purple) brown, and the "teeth" appeared to collapse. Label 2 was a couple of adjacent areas where the chemical soon appeared to produce a sort of cherry colour, still apparently dry and without any tooth collapse. It wasn't the completely iconic purple on h ttps://www.crustfungi.com/html/species/mycoacia-uda.html

Area 3 is one area of unaffected dry spiny crust for comparison. So that seems to fit with expectations? Oddly, rubbing the crust surface with a (sweaty) finger seemed to produce a similar cherry colour, quite quickly, which I haven't heard of before.

I shall have to do some microscopy!

Mycoacia or Phlebia uda, Jackrogersella, etc.

 

Steccherinum ochraceum possibly

 

Oval patches along a fallen log most likely presumed to be oak or beech. Well defined white margin, central area very matt from a distance ochre to orange-yellow.

Sulphur Tuft, Hypholoma fasciculare

 Sulphur Tuft:

This species is really quite toxic - the bitter taste when raw is rather deceptively lost upon cooking - but the toxins are definitely not!

One of the very common mushrooms found growing on tree bases and fallen wood, characterised by yellowish caps with a paler rim and with the yellowish stems blending with an orange brown base. The purple-brown spores gradually turn the gills from yellow to a striking green. Watch out for the related species, Hypholoma capnioides, found on conifer stumps, whose gills gradually turn greyish rather than greenish.

The genus Hypholoma is characterised by the web-like threads connecting the cap with the stem that can be seen when young.

This group of Sulphur Tufts in Dene Park developed in less than a week on this particular log by the side of the track.

One advantage Hypholoma fasciculare. has is its ability to form tubes that can allow rapid spread to new sources of nutrition. It releases super-oxides and laccases to attack the mycelium of other species of wood-inhabiting fungi as well as the lignin in the wood itself.

It is a saprobic white rotter which might have some more significance in beech but rot than previously thought. 

Might have potential for a new antibiotic as well.