GFG Foray: Crynant Forest

A damp Halloween day. Crynant Forest is predominately fir trees but we did find other tree types when we got inadvertently lost. Above is a fairy ring I saw on my way to meet some of the other members. I can't say which species it belongs to at the moment.
We stopped off at a lay by by Aberdulais Falls and in the carpark opposite and just like last year, growing in the bark mulch with holly, was the stunning Stropharia caerulea/Blue Roundhead.

Below; Dacrymyces stillatus/Common Jellyspot

 

 

Pont-Nedd-Fechan Fungi

Pont-Nedd-Fechan 24-10-10

Leotia lubrica/Jelly Baby
Piptoporus betulinus/Birch Polypore or Razorstrop Fungus
Daedaleopsis confragosa/Blushing Bracket
Stereum rugosa/Bleeding Broadleaf Crust
Postia stiptica/Bitter Bracket
Cortinarius sanguineus/Blood-red Cortinarius
Armillaria mellea/Honey Fungus
Craterellus cornucopioides/Horn of Plenty or Trumpet of Death
Cantharellus cibarius/Chanterelle/Girolle
Clitocybe nebularis/Clouded Agaric/Funnel
Amanita vaginata/Grisette
Pseudoboletus parasiticus/Parasitic Bolete
Leccinum versipelle/Orange Birch Bolete
Boletus edulis/Penny Bun/Cep or Porcini
Laccaria amethystea/Amethyst Deceiver
Laccaria laccata/The Deceiver
Hydnum repandum/Wood Hedgehog
Entoloma rhodopolium/Wood Pinkgill
Marasmius ramealis/Twig Parachute
Mycena alcalina
Ascocoryne sarcoides/Purple Jellydisc
Daldinia concentrica/Cramp balls
Crepiodotus mollis/Peeling Oysterling
Crepidotus variabilis/Variable Oysterling
Panellus stipticus/Bitter Oysterling
Scleroderma citrinus/Common Earthball
Xylaria hypoxylon/Candlesnuff Fungus
Xylaria polymorpha/Dead Mans fingers
Kuehneromyces mutabilis/Sheathed Woodtuft or Velvet Toughshank
Macrotyphula juncea/Slender Club
Pluteus salicinus/Willow shield

Unidentified
Russula
Lactarius
Two Mycena
Plus two fungi (unknown genus)

Mushrooms in the News

It's not often one hears about fungi in the news. On Radio Four today was a story of foragers clearing forests and woods of mushrooms either to sell to restaurants or because it's become recently fashionable as a life style choice to collect food from natural sources instead of going to the supermarket.
Below is a link to an article in The Guardian newspaper yesterday about the same subject.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/oct/24/wild-mushroom-foraging-hurts-forests

GFG Foray: Pont-Nedd-Fechan

Pont-Nedd-Fechan  is a beautiful place and well known for its many waterfalls. The woodland is a mixture of broad leaf trees; like oak, beech, hazel, ash and also birch amongst others. It was also bursting with mushrooms.
After two weeks of forays with disappointing results, this foray made up for that because we found a great deal of species; some of them very beautiful and special indeed and many I haven't seen before.
Sunday morning had been frosty but not hard enough to do damage. It pays to go off the beaten track sometimes and this time we had someone who knows the area well which was really helpful. Below are a selection of some of the mushrooms we found within an hour:

Hydnum repandum/Wood Hedgehog. So called because it has spines hanging from its cap instead or conventional gills or pores.

Craterellus cornucopioides/Horn of Plenty or Trumpet of Death.

Laccaria amethystina/Amethyst Deceiver. In this photo one can see how small this specimen was when seen next to fallen acorns.



Cortinarius sanguineus/Blood-red Webcap. This mushroom is remarkably striking. The web under the cap is very slight and can only be seen with a hand lens.

We recorded three boletes. The one below looks like Boletus edulis/Cep or Penny Bun.

Pseudoboletus parasiticus/Parasitic Bolete. syn. Boletus parasiticus or Xerocomus parasiticus.
It only grows on Scleroderma citrinum/Common earthball.

 Leccinum versipelle/Orange Birch Bolete. The cap is a tawny orange.

 Ascocoryne sarcoides/Purple Jellydisc.

On a bank we found a large troop of  Clitocybe nebularis/Clouded Funnel or Clouded Agaric. Some of them were very large indeed and it's always good to see them in such numbers.

GFG Foray; Kenfig Burrows & Margam Park

Kenfig Burrows
I've been amazed at the good weather over the last week. Autumn leaves with a touch of summer. Whist the weather has been beautiful it's really not great for fungi.  At Kenfig Burrows the ground was very parched and we didn't find a great deal. We've had more productive forays here but today was not to be a repeat.
It was disappointing but not entirely in vain. We found two mushrooms that as of yet are unidentifiable.One of which is pictured below, the other may be Calvatia excipuliformis.

 
Margam Park
By noon we had already decided to try somewhere else and ended up in Margam. For quite a while there was virtually nothing but we did find a few things, Tricholomas I think, but we'll see. Towards the end of the day, in the last half hour, we found five fungi.
Three of the fungi were sharing the space and benefits of living on a huge fallen beech tree; All these fungi live  on Beech. They were: 
Oudemanisella mucida/Porcelain Mushroom
Hypoxylon fragiforme/Beech Woodwart 
Trametes veriscolor/Turkeytail

Below, Hypoxylon fragiforme/Beech Woodwart. The second photo is the fungi in it's younger form. it turns dark as it ages. The photo below shows the age process. If you look closely at the surface of the fruitbody one can see it has a pimpled surface and that helps with identification. (click on the photo to enlarge)

Oudemanisella mucida/Porcelain Mushroom. A very beautiful mushroom, always with beech. I've seen some very large specimens but not in these numbers.

Below is another fungi that favours beech, Pholiota squarrosa/Shaggy Scalycap. It grows at the base of the trunk. It's quite attractive and the shaggy scales all over the cap and scales makes identification very easy.

Whist photographing the fungi a couple approach us. They point out to us a stag, close by silently watching us..



Walking Home
I find this on the way home, living on an old trunk, slice a bit off, will look it up later because right now I have a hill to walk up and good coffee waiting for me.

Unknown Coral Mushroom

A few days ago I went for a foray round some usual routes, I found a lots of Cortinarius and other fungi but I chanced upon a mushroom that I'd never seen before. I know its called a 'coral' but I'm having more trouble identifying it than I had expected. I wouldn't have thought something so distinct could be so puzzling. It's striking to look at. Here are the photos.

Psilocybe cyanescens/Blueleg Brownie

I found this mushroom growing by Sainsburys. It was surprisingly easy to identify because I noticed it turned blue where touched, especially in the stipe. Just that information alone was helpful; there are not many mushrooms than bruise blue when handled.

It's called Psilocybe cyanescens/Blueleg Brownie.  It's dangerous to eat this mushroom.


Habitat It grows on saw dust and wood mulch and whilst it was uncommon, the increased use of bark mulch has allowed the fungi to also increase in numbers. From late autumn to early winter.
Cap 2-4cm across, convex then expanded and irregularly wavy which can be seen below.  The photo also shows the cap is hygrophanous, (it changes colour when it dries). The cap on the left shows an ochre cream colour with a darker reddish edge. The darker colour can be seen on the right.

Flesh whitish, tinged bluish in places.
Gills adnate; pale ochre at first which become dark brown with age.
Stem 25-50mm high/5-8mm wide; white, bruising strongly blue or blue-green. This colour change can be seen below. I've enhanced the colour on these two photos but in real life the colour change is clearly visible

Russula sardonia/Primrose Brittlegill

We found this mushroom; Russula sardonia, the Primrose Brittlegill at Whitford Sands. It grows with pines and is common. 
Cap 4-10cms across, convex, later flattening and with a depression.
The colour of the cap is often a rich violet, purple and brown colour sometimes greenish or ochre or yellowish; hard and the skin doesn't peel back far.

 Below a young mushroom, the cap in convex in shape

The colours of the gills and stipe are better seen in the photos below. The stipe is clearly flushed pink, sometimes it's more lilac or purple, sometimes it resembles raspberry ripple ice cream.

Gills adnexed to slightly decurrent, narrow, at first a primrose colour that ages pale golden yellow.
Stipe 30-80mm high/10-15mm wide; sometimes white, often lilac to grey rose. There's a distinct primrose colour in the examples below.

Flesh white; taste very hot, smell slightly fruity.

 

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GFG Foray: Ogwr Ridgeway & Parc Slip

Two forays today on an unseasonally warm and sunny Sunday .  We didn't find a great deal at Ogwr though we found something special at Parc Slip. As it happens the best find was kept till last. The woods at Ogwr is mixed, from pine plantations growing in straight lines to old oak and beech mixed wood.


Russula ochroleuca/Ochre brittlegill was in the pines and out in numbers but not abundant. There was both Sulphur and Conifer Tuft: Hypholoma fasciculare and Hypholoma capnoides.


There were some tiny Oudemanisella muscida/Porcelain Mushroom too.
We also found Helvella crispa/White Saddle in good numbers. It's one of my favorite mushrooms. It's stipe structure is truly amazing and to my eye beautiful.


Like a Swiss cheese that's been stretched and gently twisted. The architect Antonio Gaudi may have loved it. Though his brilliant organic arcitecture isn't a patch on the endless variety of the towers this fungi builds to expell it's spores..
There was also a couple of Cortinarius that as always are puzzling and some great examples of Calocera viscosa/Yellow Stagshorn mushroom.





At Parc Slip, the wood is mostly larch and fir and the best things to be seen here are hidden away off the paths. Whilst the little choo choo train does it's job creating interest in a ride for the visitors there are amazing things to be witnessed in the natural world off the track. We found Laccaria amethystea/Amethyst Deceiver in astounding numbers, the wood floor dotted in beautiful purple touches.



And some rare mushrooms too.  Below is the Suillus cavipes/Hollow Bolete. It grows with larchThe cap and stipe is felty, even hairy to the touch and also has a hollow stipe.
This fungi is very rare indeed and should not be collected.



 

Ogwr Rideway and Parc Slip. 10-10-10
Russula ochroleuca/Ochre brittlegill
Hypholoma fasciculare/Sulphur Tuft 
Hypholoma capnoides/Conifer Tuft

Oudemanisella muscida/Porcelain Mushroom
Helvella crispa/White Saddle
Calocera viscosa/Yellow Stagshorn
Melanoleuca polioleuca/Common Cavalier (=Melanoleuca melaleuca)
Laccaria laccata/The Deceiver
Scleroderma areolatum/Common Earthball
Cortinarius (unidentified)
Parc Slip
Laccaria amethystea/Amethyst Deceiver
Suillus cavipes/Hollow Bolete (=Bolentinus cavipes)
Suillus tridentinus?
Inocybe geophylla v. lilacina
Tricholoma
Lactarius