Kilvey Hill

It's been very misty all week and Kilvey Hill has vanished under a dense grey shroud.  I go for a foray up the hill but I don't predict to find much, if anything.
Even after five days of heavy mist  the woodland floor is clearly dry. For the most part my own prediction comes true but I'm satisfied all the same when I come across two fungi fruiting in  within metres of each other.

Halfway over the route I decided to take today I come across a tree covered with Coprinellus disseminatus, Fairy Inkcaps.  This particular Inkcap is easy to identify because it can fruit in spectacular numbers.  Coprinellus disseminatus is a fungi that creates small, fragile mushrooms, often in swarms covering dead trees and wood.

The cap is 'striate': one can see lines running from the edge towards the top of the cap. It looks oval at first then bell shaped then convex. It's worth noting that one can see ageing. Fresh mushrooms are creamy buff but they turn grey as they mature and the cap turns from bell shaped to flattening out.

The fantastic display is over quickly but it's worth seeing the mushrooms in different stages of maturity because one can see the difference and learn from that.

A few metres away was a Daedaleopsis confragosa, Blushing Bracket. This particular specimen looked rather healthy and I'm guessing that that all the fruiting bodies belong to one, singular fungi within this branch.

Below is the same fungi but it is young. I found this earlier but I'm sure it's the same thing. I've never seen this fungi at this developmental stage. If one looks at the edge one can see the maroon layers.

Bracket fungi take a long time to mature while Inkcaps take days. It's worth noticing the difference and learning from it.

Blushing Bracket

The Blushing Bracket, Daedaleopsis confragosa is a very common fungi that lives on dead wood. It forms a semicircular fan shape that can reach up to 20cms across and where it is attached to the wood can sometimes form a bump (umbo). Its uneven upper surface is maroon but with brown and ochre colours too, concentrically ridged.

The underside of this bracket consists of rounded and elongated pores which in the photo below is a silvery grey colour, however when handled or pressed on will turn pinkish then darker. The pore surface also darkens reddish brown with age. Sometimes found solitary or on tiers.

Lake Pluck 21-11-11

At Lake Pluck, the fungi season has been rich with species and like last year, fruiting in tremendous amounts. The greatest number today were Collybia butyracea/Butter Cap, This is a variable species when one looks at the cap but the surface does feel like butter when dry so it's always worth a gentle touch. The photo of the fairy ring below is this species. The ring itself was about ten foot in diameter and there were quite a few of them. Below is Piptoporus betulinus/Birch Bracket

Below is Lepista Nuda/Wood Blewit.  This year I have found a number of this mushroom, quite large ones too.

I'll have to look this mushroom up though it's an Agaricus. The dark red discolouration should be helpful in identification.

 The most interesting find today is shown below. It's a Jelly Tongue; Pseudohydnum gelatinosum. I'll try and get some better photos later. 

Above is a photo of the Blushing Bracket/Daedaleopsis confragosa. There was quite a lot of this maroon coloured bracket about.
Below are two photos of Clitocybe nebularis /Clouded Funnel. I could not photograph the length this species was growing. The second photo hints at its length, which was roughly twelve foot but there was another arc that was easily over twenty five feet. The brambles and trees prevented me from finding the end.

 It's never fails to surprise me what ends up in the woods. A load of staplers and staples and next to it, the screws and things needed to fix a sink to a wall.

Below is a lichen, Cladonia floerkeana, the red parts are the spore producing bodies.

Finally, two brackets which I'll have a look at later as I can't identify them off the top of my head but hopefully the blue tint to the pores will be helpful.

Lake Pluck 21-11-11

Collybia butyracea
Russula ochroleuca
Suillus luteus
Clitocybe nebualris
Lepista Nuda
Daedaleopsis confragosa
Pseudohydnum gelatinosum