Friday 30 September 2016

September fungi - Slimy Waxcap

This waxcap (Hygrocybe irrigata) is indeed slimy but one of the most distinctive features for me are the hoops or bands on the stipe. Sometimes you need full sun to see them clearly but no other waxcap I have seen has the same feature.

September fungi - Glutinous Waxcap

This is a waxcap (Hygrocybe glutinipes)that I have been trying to get a good photo of that shows its gloop. I think I finally managed it. This was here at The Beeches.

September fungi - Spangle Waxcap

I have a little group of the Spangle Waxcap (Hygrocybe insipida) with its dark orange striae. This was one that puzzled me for a while but I am confident now of the ID. Part of the problem is that other people also get confused and post the wrong pictures on the internet and even in books!

September fungi - Lilac Pinkgill

Yesterday I found some classic looking Lilac Pinkgills (Entoloma porphyropheum) a.ll lilacy and pinkgilly. These were in The Hudnalls

September fungi - Pale Waxcap

I wasn't 100% sure about the ID of the Pale Waxcap that I find here every year but it has been confirmed. In fact it looked a bit different this year in terms of the cap shape but then the cap shape is always somewhat distorted. I follow Boertmann on nomenclature and he says this is a variety of Meadow Waxcap hence Hygrocybe pratensis var pallida. Others say that it is a separate species Hygrocybe berkeleyi and as a layman it certainly seems separate from the hundreds of Meadow Waxcaps I get here.

September fungi - Agaricus urinascens

This looked like a particularly fine Agaricus urinascens (used to be A. macrosporus) - I have only ever seen a half eaten one before. I found it on the other side of the Wye on the Hudnalls.

September fungi - Big Blue Pinkgill

This is a only Pinkgill (Entoloma sp) on the UK BAP (Biodiversity Action Plan) as far as I know. I hadn't found it before but it turned up as the only fungi fruiting at New Grove Meadows recently. It's a little slug eaten but still looks impressive.

September fungi - Fibrous Waxcap

The Fibrous Waxcap (Hygrocybe intermedia) fruiting here in far greater numbers than I have seen before. I have around 15 areas of fruiting in my largest field comprising about 50 or more specimens. Yesterday over on the other side of the Wye I saw even greater numbers of this waxcap with one clump of 50 or so examples. It must be the particular weather that suits it.

September fungi - Hygrocybe ingrata

Absolutely drowning in waxcaps here since we got back from holiday mid-month but until yesterday I hadn't seen many elsewhere. I am particularly pleased to see a large fruiting of this little known waxcap (it doesn't have an English name). I had some fruiting at the end of June strangely but now there is a troupe of around 30 in the large field. This phot is of a grizzled old slug eaten example which shows the cap nicely. Thee books say they get up to 50 or 60mm across but this is bigger.

Friday 2 September 2016

Start of the fungi season?

It's been eerily quiet on the fungi front since the unseasonal appearance of three waxcaps at the end of June but yesterday I found a grassland stalwart, the Yellow Fieldcap (Bolbitius titubans). I am expecting lots more fungi in the next few weeks.