New Species - Yellow Foot Waxcap

The fungi foray here at The Beeches on Saturday turned up a new waxcap for the list here - the Yellow Foot Waxcap (Hygrocybe flavipes). It has the dual attractions of being easy to identify (due to its yellow base of the stem when plucked) and having beautiful grey gills with lots of interconnecting veins. I note that my photo shows neither of these features!

October Fungi - Waxcaps from a lawn

This is not from The Beeches or even very close but it makes a change from my usual fungi pictures. This was almost all of the waxcaps found yesterday on a survey of the lawns in front of Kentchurch Court, a stately home just up the Monnow Valley. For the record the 13 species shown are flavipes, citrinovirens, quieta, ovina, ceracea, chlorophana, irrigata, psittacina, intermedia, insipida, calyptriformis, conica and virginia. Pratensis was also found.

October fungi - Plums and Custard

This is a new species for me here at The Beeches. It is a common enough fungi but comes in delightful colours - hence the name. Unfortunately this example suffered some damage from my mower before I spotted it growing on an old conifer stump. It's latin name is Tricholomopsis rutilans.

Great year for Red Admirals

A poor summer for butterflies in general - both in terms of species and numbers. There were lots of Meadow Browns which is the commonest butterfly here but even their numbers were probably down and there were less of all other species as well as a number of non-appearances. The one I was most disappointed about was the iconic meadow butterfly here - the Marbled White. However the one species that has had an outstanding year is the Red Admiral. I don't know whether it is because of Climate Change or just the particular weather we have had this year but they have been plentiful. Here we are in mid-October and they are still flying. I took this photo yesterday.

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!