The Deathcap Amanita phalloides, the False Deathcap Amanita citrina and the Jewelled Amanita, Amanita gemmata.

 

Amanita phalloides, Amanita citrina and Amanata gemmata

The Deathcap is a relatively large and highly toxic mushroom. It tends to be greenish or yellowish and to lose the veil remnants quite quickly, leaving the cap smooth and a little shiny. The stipe is fundamentally white, but substantially mottled with patches of the cap colour below the ring which quickly vanishes. The Volva rather obvious and persistent. Not really common, but more frequent in the south. Associated with Oak and Beech. Possibly a sickly-sweet smell? There is a white form.

This one doesn't show all the features because it has been quite badly nibbled.

No mucking around with this killer.

  

I have been shown the False Deathcap several times before, and I would agree that it is an excellent "learner" mushroom, but it is still a bit tricky for me.

I contrast the true Deathcap above with this False Deathcap, a very whitish Amanita with a bulb showing the rim of a volva, a persistent pendulous ring on the stipe and whitish veil-remnant patches on the cap. Closer examination should show a slight lemon-yellow tinge and perhaps the odour of raw potato - or possibly radish? 

There is a white form.

Its quite poisonous, so still no mucking about with this one either!  

This Jewelled Amanita was one Phil showed me last week at Hallswood, possibly slightly less poisonous, 

The cap is a more obvious creamy yellow, with whitish veil-remnants that can eventually disappear finally leaving a smooth cap. The stem should be fibrillose below the rapidly vanishing ring, smooth above, and remnants of the volva should be visible around the bulb. The cap margin should be slightly striate. contrasting 

Buczacki suggests that the flesh should have a slight yellowish tinge, but I cannot see it in this image.

Still not eating it!

Junghuhnia (Steccherinum) nitidum or just possibly lacera?

Slightly more lacerate than usual, but not a British species I think. Impossible to resolve without measuring the spores under a microscope, but I should have tried to measure the pore density at least.

Stereum rameale or Chondrostereum purpureum perhaps?

 Found on a small fallen branch about 15 - 20 mm thick. Each cushion with a darker central hub, highly shaggy on the reverse side, often curled up to form a one sided cap. Fertile surface cracked so could be old and decrepit maybe?

I am completely stumped within Stereum as a genus. The fertile surfaces look like photos on the internet named as "Stereum rameale" but the shagginess is completely out, a much longer pile than Stereum hirsutum, supposedly the hairiest one in the genus. Only thing I can think of that is quite this shaggy is Silverleaf, Chondrostereum purpureum, perhaps old cushions from last season, so that all the purple has been long ago washed out? 

Wet Rot, maybe

I think this must be the very young stage of Coniophora puteana or one of its close relatives. There is no colour in the centre, but the texture is very reminiscent of this species, coupled with the furry nature of the edges, the fine white extensions. Interesting to think what these might be for, evolutionarily? Would I be able to find this log again? Very doubtful.

Elfin Saddle, Helvella lacunosa

 

Someone in the Kent Field Club group pointed this out to the rest of us, a remarkable Ascomycete fungus.

The fruiting surface is smooth on the upper surface, a little furry beneath. It fuses with the strongly furrowed stalk in several places. Perhaps found in woodland or woodland clearings, perhaps on richer soil, sometimes on fire sites, but I didn't think to look closely at this site. Possibly mycorrhizal. Could well be a species complex.

Anamorph: not known.
Teleomorph: stromata absent. Ascomata large, discomycetous, stipitate. Cap 1.5-5 cm diam., regularly saddle-shaped with 2-3 lobes or irregularly lobed, strongly convex, the margin attached in some places to the stipe. Hymenium pale greyish to greyish-brown to black, very often wrinkled towards the centre, the outer surface of the cap glabrous, pale greyish to grey-brown, sometimes with indistinct, anastomosing shallow ribs. Stipe 1.5-5(-12) cm high, 5-15 mm diam., glabrous, pale greyish to greyish-brown to nearly black, mostly paler near the base with deep furrows, the ribs sharp-edged, sometimes double-edged, irregular, anastomosing, the inside of the stipe with longitudinal chambers. Outer excipulum of angular to prismatic cells, 55-110 µm thick, the outermost cells clavate, hyaline or with brownish walls, 12-30 x 6-15 µm in size. Medulla (below hymenium) of intertwined hyphae, 225-350 µm thick, the hyphae 3-4 µm diam., sometimes mixed with broader deeply staining hyphae. Interascal tissue of unbranched paraphyses 4-7 µm diam., nearly hyaline or dark brownish. Asci 290-355 x 13-16 µm. Ascospores 15-19 x 9.5-12 µm in size.

Bjerkandera adusta

 

The Smoky Bracket, Bjerkandera adusta, is a very common fungus, which can be found in a fully prostrate form (effused), as well as as, perhaps much more commonly, caps (reflexed).

It should always be pressed on the pore surface to see if it darkens upon pressure. Also cross-sectioning the tissue should reveal the grey pore layer contrasting well with the white flesh. Bjerkandera fumosa has lighter coloured pores, separated from the white flesh by a dark line.

Today, there were a number of individual fruiting bodies, mostly resupinate, on fallen branches of Oak in the first Oak compartment to the north of the car park at Dene Park. 

There was evidence I think of the very yellowed flesh of previous fruiting bodies below and behind the current ones, and some slightly yellowed flesh of the current brackets visible in the gaps of the larger fruiting bodies seen here. Some clear and some cloudy liquid droplets on this lower surfaces. In some places the flesh is reflexed to start cap formation, although why is less clear. However, compare with the possibly more developed complex fruiting bodies seen at Dunorlan Park on the 5th November, 2011.

This other large resupinate fruiting body appears to show more small developing caps, and also maybe  a couple of patches of the pore surface darkened by pressure.

 

Here the fungus has used a leaf as support to produce a thin resupinate structure quickly and easily.

Here is an old cap, decaying, brown and fibrous.

And here is a Springtail, possibly Tomocerus vulgaris!

Biscogniauxia nummularia - Beech Tar Crust or Charcoal Canker

 

I think this is most likely to be Biscogniauxia. Stated to be a significant parasite of Fagus sylvatica if the environmental conditions stress the tree in various ways - increasing risk drought is perceived as a bit of a worry for European Beech in Southeast England.

This is a section of dead hardwood in the trunk of one of these trees to the east of the main track from the car park at Dene Park. The fruiting body "erupts" through the bark nicely.

Are there any clues to why this bark appears dead in this image here? There is good evidence that these species occur in healthy living trees as endophytes and then become invasive under water stress conditions. Could the initial carving have possibly caused this overall wound that allowed a strip canker to get to work, and we are now seeing the results as the fruiting bodies appearing, perhaps later through the letters themselves?

Here, these fruiting bodies are just appearing recently on the heartwood of this large branch on the ground that tore away from the trunk maybe a couple of years ago. 

The species used to be known as Hypoxylon nummularium: this should now always be known as Biscogniauxia nummularia (Bull.) Kuntze. This genus is distinguished from Hypoxylon principally in lacking coloured stromatal pigments and in having an initial covering layer, lost at maturity, which bears conidia. Many species have effused and flattened rather than pulvinate stromata.

Biscogniauxia atropunctata is a saprophyte and parasite affecting oaks east of the rocky mountains, It starts as a blue-white fruiting crust with tiny black pimples, eventually darkening to black patches on dead and dying wood.

Biscogniauxia mediterranea is well known as the causative agent of charcoal canker in cork oak and is a serious problem in Portugal.

Biscogniauxia rosacearum may possibly be one of the main fungi that feed on grape vines and almonds.

Biscogniauxia species that produce interesting secondary metabolites can also be found in deep sea sub-floor sediments!