A sulphurous end to the mildness of autumn

Lots of wood-rotting going on in Fox Wood Covert this afternoon, with also a few Buttercaps, Rhodocollybia butyracea, scattered around and a small patch of the Sulphur Knight, Tricholoma sulphureum, near the beginning. Note the central browning around a small remaining umbo. There are some purple shades on some caps according to the books, often quite confusing.

It is a relatively tall mushroom! Stem often twice the cap diameter, as it appears to be here. And the smell was definitely strong and noxious.

I couldn't see any reddish fibres on the stem as described and the gills looked almost decurrent within the "sinuate" range. 

Supposedly mycorrhizal with deciduous trees such as Oak and Beech, only occasionally with conifers. These ones might be linked to some nearby Oaks, oddly I haven't found it under the Beech trees elsewhere in the woods.

Compare to Tricholoma frondosae under Aspen at Beacon Wood a couple of weeks ago.

A lovely patch of Stereum subtomentosum, both from above and below, trying to look a little like Turkeytail.

This Datronia mollis was I think on a long-fallen Ash branch, stacked by kids on a Hornbeam. This is quite variable according to age and development. I suspect the first two are images of the same younger patch of fruiting body, the first untouched and the second rubbed.  The third image is I believe an older and more bruised patch, with proportionately larger pores, but still resupinate and not yet elongated and maze-like. 

In the last photo there is a jelly-like species, just possibly Crystal Brain, Exidia nucleata.

This appears to be a very young King Alfred's Cakes, Daldinia concentrica, which ought to be a mid-brown colour in itself, but covered in greyish spores. 

and this is the context. There looks to be some Chlorociboria on the log below, presumably Oak.

There was a nice patch of Candlesnuff, Xylaria hypoxylon on a mossy log

This appears to be a Bonnet or Mycena species pretending to be an Oysterling or Crepidotus. Shows how to fool the AI! 

The Peeled Oysterling, Crepidotus mollis, seems to be having a good year.

 A nice Ganoderma adspersum on one of the boundary Hornbeams,

There was one log with fruiting Smokey Bracket, resupinate and reflexed, Bjerkandera adusta, possibly on Hornbeam.

Finally a variety of fresh growths, again resupinate and reflexed, of the Silverleaf Fungus, Chondrostereum purpureum, possibly on Hornbeam
 

Kilndown wood

There were a lot of waxcaps and associated species in the Kilndown churchyard, mostly pointed out too too quickly for me to take in. But this certainly looked like a Parrot Waxcap, Hygrocybe psittacina, and a very green one at that.

Hygrocybe miniata and coccinea were there, but no photos.

This was in quite large numbers throughout the upper churchyard

I think this is the young stage

and this is the Slimy Waxcap, Hygrocybe irrigata, now Gliophorus irrigata, last seen on Nain's lawn in North Wales,

These were announced as Apricot Club, the commonest of which is Clavulinopsis luteoalba. which should have paler tips, be round in cross-sectionand unbranched. Perhaps these are another species.

This is I think a different species, possibly Clavulinopsis helvola. Maybe that is a furrow running down it, which is fairly characteristic?

In just one patch there was a group of Caterpillar Club, Cordyceps militaris, which looked wonderful and intriguing as usual. But why so many fruiting bodies all together?

This should be the Pear-shaped Puffball, Lycoperdon perlatum, by the steps between the sections of the churchyard,

I think this might be the Meadow Bonnet, Mycena flavoalba, as it is slightly yellower in the centre

By one of the graves, there was one fruiting body of Orange Peel Fungus, Aleuria aurantia, 

This appears to be a species of Arrhenia rustica. At least this is crenellate, although not much else can be made out

On the churchyard wall we found Scots Pine needles infected with the little black patches of infection by Lophodermium pinastri, which it was explained is very common and usually easily identified. Note the black transfer zones, which may separate individuals, and the oval perithecia, including one unexplained buff one.

this looks like the fruiting body or bodies on the left

 We eventually moved into the woods!

One of the many interesting finds today were these Hydnum umbiliculatum, becaise this species has only been noted in this country over the last 15 years, having apparently migrated from North America.

A rather nice warm buff on the top of the cap and in the spines underneath it, contrast with the whiter top half of the stems. The umbilicus is very clear indeed. Growing around and very close to the trunk of a good sized Beech tree. It has only been noted in the country for the last fifteen years.

Definitely a privilege to be shown these!

Russula cessans was found close to Birch, Pine, Sweet Chestnut. 

First two compartments

 

In the first compartment I picked up this broken up Russula, which might have been Russula ochroleuca, the very common Ochre Brittle Gill. The macro-chemicals didn't exactly as expected however, with the Guiac going Blue-Green, but the Iron going maybe pink-gray but then dark grey. In addition, the gills when crushed, smelt like rotten fish I thought. So, as usual, no firm answer - but it looked like the Ochre, and I have seen several rather similar ones in the past. I did eventually agree there were some greenish tinges and possibly some darker ochre spots. It is also on the Pitt/Weightman list.

In the Beech compartment there was a Ramaria species, which could have been Ramaria stricta. It was a bit discoloured buff, and I thought it smelt very strongly aromatic, possibly of aniseed. Ramaria stricta is said to only smell slightly of aniseed. Paula didn't pick up anything at all. About 5 minutes after giving it a good squeeze, the wine-red colour was fairly clear. However it can't be identified with any certainty anyway.  

It seemed to be closer to the Sweet Chestnut and Hornbeams than to the Beech downhill. 

Looks like a wood-eating Mycena, possibly Mycena inclinata although the foot wasn't very woolly. It might also be Mycena arcangeliana but I couldn't smell the iodine aroma that is supposed to be characteristic.

My first sighting this year of Plicaturopsis crispa, the Crimped Gill, new to the UK but spreading remarkably and now very common.

As far as the Alders

 

Coming to a resolution of sorts on the Beech fungus, I suspect that it is quite old and therefore it is reasonable to suppose it is possible that all the scales might have been washed off.

Two or three features really stand out.

Firstly this was one of the most slimy, slippiest things I have ever tried to pick up. This fits with the Pholiota group and not Gymnopilus.

Its stems are curved horizontally and downwards to the caps, again pointing to Pholiota.

The stems are all conjoined at the base, a feature noted for Pholiota.

When tasted it was nasty in texture but it was not bitter. That really should eliminate Gymnopilus.

Cloudy Funnel on the left, Oyster on the right as I look at these two.

And again. Note the pale, clunky, decurrent and widely spaced gills on the Oyster.

 

Dene Park in the gloaming

 

I went straight to the Beech area towards the boundary bank this evening, and found this rather old bunch of fruiting bodies of a Pholiota(?) species on a Beech tree wound at about chest height. This would need microscopy to be sure of the exact species but I think that it would be likely to be in the adiposa group of species as it is currently understood. 

Around the bases of the Beech trees were plenty of Clouded Funnels, Clitocybe nebularis, quite neat in their young stages, but floppy and all over the place when older

It really does get paler at the base of the stem

There were also quite a few Butter Caps, as previously but no photos. 

Common fungi in Dene Park

 

Buttercap - note the woolly foot.

Clouded Funnel - surprisingly dramatically curled up when older!

Wood Blewit, Lepista nuda, lovely to see!

Stagshorn, Calocera viscosa 

Candlesnuff, Xylaria hypoxylon

Unknown Bonnet, Mycena

Snipe Wood with the Field Club

Concentrating first on the Boletes, 

Imleria badia, the Bay Bolete.

The first one we saw was the Bay Bolete, notable because of its often notably darker brown and matte to dry polished cap - not normally viscid and almost entirely under Pines as in Suillus bovinus, the lighter warmer brown of the Bovine Bolete. The cap is difficult to peel. 

A moderately sized medium-large Bolete, with a cap 5 - 15 cm across. The stipe is reddish-brown narrow vertical lines over the paler background, no reticulation except maybe at the apex, getting streakier as it gets older. Stripes can look surprisingly reddish. May be a pale to whitish zone at the apex and possibly the base, where there may be some whitish mycelium.

The pores are white to pale yellowish, yellow-green to olive when older, bruising a rather dull greyish blue, perhaps somewhat slowly. 

When cut you may get a bit of blue in the flesh and maybe a little bit of wine-red immediately under the cap. Or bluish in the cap flesh, slight reddish-brown in older specimens, not blue in the stem, from the images on the internet.  

Generally found under conifers or Beech in the South (maybe almost anything). However on occasion it can be a lighter much more orange brown, quite viscid when wet. Spores are olive-brown. 

A drop of ammonium hydroxide solution turns the cap cuticle a greenish to bluish colour. Application of ferrous sulphate solution causes the flesh to stain a dull bluish-green, while the pores turn golden brown with a drop of dilute potassium hydroxide

 

Xerocomellus pruinatus, the Matte Bolete, seems most likely - note the slight red edging around the brown "frosted" cap, and the red in the wound under the cap (not all agree on this), which most Xerocomellus species show, such as Xerocomellus cisalpinus (flesh blues up very strongly) and the Red Cracking Bolete, Xerocomellus chrysenteron (cap breaks up a lot). There is also Xerocomellus porosporus, (grey-yellow stem, very little red if any, stem blackens on cutting) Should have checked its tubes for a xerocomellid structure! Flesh should only turn slightly blue when bruised, if at all, but pores may bruise blue rapidly and strongly, especially on older specimens.

The cap colour is very variable indeed, many different browns to black. The stipe is notably strong - n.b. the Slate Bolete from Hever Castle. 

The pores, tubes, stipe and flesh tend to be a bright yellow, although the outside of the stipe reddens up, perhaps as the fruiting body gets older.  

Associated quite often with Beech.

Tricholomas.

The coal-gas one and the soapy one and the Birch one.

Tricholoma fulvum, The Birch Knight (although there is at least one whitish one as well), note the darker centre to the cap and the sulcate (ridged) edge to the Pileus.

Common and widespread. Should have yellow flesh in the stem, and it did of course. Mealy smell.