Sunday 14th October
After a long, dry early autumn with few fungi about, the heavens opened for today’s foray which was conducted in, at times, torrential rainfall! The bad weather had deterred some people which was a shame because the privately owned Rowlands Wood, near Havenstreet, was a new site for us. Nine members attended and it proved to be a fascinating visit, kindly led by George Gedling. We managed to find quite a good range of fungi in less than ideal conditions. One of the nicest finds was a large, golden Cortinarius. This belongs to a group of fungi which we regularly find on forays but the majority of species are notoriously difficult to identify. However, Cortinarius trivialis (illustrated), growing in mossy ground under willows is quite distinctive. We finished early, but nevertheless managed to identify 46 species (see link below) .
Saturday 27 October
Today’s foray was held at Firestone Copse, always a productive site. It was a chilly day and the on-going mostly dry autumn resulted in fewer finds than usual. Nevertheless, our group of 13 forayers were able to name 59 species. Dave found some magnificent specimens of Panther Cap, Amanita pantherina. We often find them here but rarely as good as these.
We also found a clump of particularly large grey club fungi, Clavulina cinerea.
Two interesting and more unusual finds were a small, pink-spored Pluteus growing on wood. This was Pluteus thomsonii and a bright orange resupinate fungus on softwood, Leucogyrophana mollusca.
It was also satisfying to record a new species for the Island, a delicate, small clumped ink cap on dung. This proved to be Coprinopsis stercorea, agreeing with the descriptions in all microscopic characters (below).
Sunday 11th November
13 of us met in the main car park at Parkhurst Forest for today’s foray on a bright, mild showery day. With continuing largely dry conditions, we did not have high expectations but we were to be pleasantly surprised. Fly Agarics put on a fine and colourful show and we saw our first Blushers (Amanita rubescens) of the season. We also found a surprising number of the rarer Amanita gemmata. Dave Sivell, new to our group, found a fine clump of Hedgehogs (Hydnum repandum). A more unusual find was a smallish white bonnetcap with pinkish overtones in the cap. Mycena metata is not often recorded by us. A group of interesting young fungi on dead gorse proved to be just Velvet Shank (Flammulina velutipes). Bitter Oysterling (Panellus stipticus) was found on dead wood. Our final score was a surprising 81 species, our highest tally for the season. Parkhurst Forest Fungi 11.11.18
Mycena metata (bottom right)
Saturday 24th November
Seven of us met at Combley Great Wood on a very wet and cold morning for our final foray of the year. There weren’t many larger toadstools to find so Natalie and Selena we concentrated on some of the tiny agarics and found several that we don’t meet very often. They included Marasmius quercophilus, a horsehair parachute that grows on decaying oak leaves; and Crepidotus epibryus, an Oysterling that grows on decaying grass leaves and other herbaceous vegetation, rather than on dead wood. Our total list for the morning was 47 species.
You must be logged in to post a comment.