Steccherinum ochraceum at Dene Park

 I think this is one of my favourite crusts, Steccherinum ochraceum, with its crowds of blunt(ish) "spikes" up to 1 mm or so tall on its quite distinctive salmon-coloured surface. These particular fruiting bodies appeared more brightly coloured than I have seen them before, so I couldn't resist posting. The initially obvious patch margins appear to start off beautifully white and fluffy but I think soon change to a discoloured slightly rind-like surface as they roll up away from the surface. The fruiting bodies can be easily separated from the wood substrate beneath, leaving little sign of the presumed mycelial structures beneath. I just sacrificed one small patch to test this, as it's said to be not that common, especially beyond our southeast corner of England. Multiple fruiting bodies along one small fallen oak branch, on my local PAWS site near Tonbridge today.

The Jelly Tooth or Jelly Tongue, Pseudohydnum gelationosum, at Hemsted Forest

 

What a great day with Kent Field Club at Hemsted Forest.

I have borrowed Phil Ambler's photos for this post, as mine were rubbish - I hope he doesn't mind! Notice the "flesh colour" (seen once it matures) and the very rubbery nature of the cap.

The Jelly Tongue is shaped a bit like a  bracket and belongs to the Exidiacea. The description of this family from the Collins' photographic guide follows:

"members of the family Exidiaceae are gelatinous or jelly fungi in varied irregular shapes and rather dull colours. They are generally associated with dead wood, both standing and fallen. Some are host specific. Like most jelly fungi, they are generally only conspicuous in wet weather and when dry, shrivel to a hard thin membrane. They rehydrate rapidly, revive and swell to resume growth and spore production. Accordingly they can be found at any time of year. The spore colour is white.! 

Could this be Xylaria longipes or NOT ........? NOT.

 

Of course when I went past these, I immediately thought Candle-snuff fungus, Xylaria polymorpha.

However, there are those hints of pink tips, the solitary nature of the slender curving fruiting bodies, and perhaps the otNOT her fungal species, the mould growing over the fruiting bodies. All these are hints towards Xylaria longipes. But they are growing on one of the ancient Hornbeam coppards along the old woodbank. Could it be......? 

Trichaptum abietinum on Spruce or Pine, revisieted in January

 

On a small dead conifer that looked like a Spruce, by the side of the footpath, there were multiple semi-pileate crusts of Trichaptum abietinum, a new species for me that is probably long overdue. The crusts are annual and probably were only fresh last year or even in a previous year. The remains of the pore structure now resemble a slightly purplish mesh.     

Here are the caps running along the underside of the dead branches, the abhymenial surfaces. 

And here are the rather old adhymenial surfaces

I revisited in January 2025, on the 18th. Although this still looks like Spruce the host could be the 2-needled Pine regularly planted close-by. 

This is a better image of the crust underside, fresher I think. The shallowness of the pores together with the colour and habitat is fairly diagnostic down to the genus Trichaptum at least.

However, the abhymenial sides of the brackets are still looking pale, stale and collecting algae:

Dene Park crusts

 

This is a beauty - but is it a Polypore or a sort of wrinkled crust?

A close-up of the surface, sharpened in Topaz,

Inonotus radiatus at the Farm Shop

 I walked over to a line of Alders with one noticeably struggling tree in the middle of the line, and indeed there were multiple early fruiting bodies of Inonotus radiatus, (Mensularia radiata) the Alder Bracket, "lumpily" resupinate and quite velvety at this stage, apricot or tan coloured, with limited pore development, the basidiomes forming the typical "ladder" feature up the trunk. The trunk was already splitting and lifting.

The basidiomes are not above head height, and still quite young for the season - somewhat different to the NatureSpot website in these particulars.

Coniophora puteana or arida possibly?

So on one branch my eye was drawn to a few small ovals of white fringes, each about an inch long, which it turned out appeared to be surrounding some thin dark brownish-grey oval crusts. 

With this unusual colour combination, perhaps these represent early development of a Coniophora species crusts, perhaps Coniophora puteana, a common cause of wet rot, or perhaps another species such as Coniophora arida? These and others are found in the south of England, so both are possibles. That's all I can think of, anyway!