Symbiotic fungi explained by David Attenborough.
Header image taken in the reserve by DKG
Fungi
Yellow brain fungus
Pictures and a message from Clive Knight:
Walking round the reserve today, I saw this bright yellow fungus growing on an old Oak branch. I have no idea what it is. Can anybody help?
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King Alfred’s cakes
Daldinia concentrica: known as King Alfred’s cakes or coal fungus grows on the park’s trees, in this case on a dead ash tree.
Read moreCandlesnuff fungus
A tiny candlesnuff fungus, Xylaria hypoxylon, growing in the rotting wood and moss of the old willow tree (number 5477 ) by the footpath alongside the Lambrok Tributary.
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The Wood Wide Web
by David Feather
I enjoy mushrooms, particularly as part of a full English breakfast. What I have never, till now, known, is that they and their other fungi relatives could save the planet.
Continue readingSlime mould
Slime moulds are extraordinary things; here is a fascinating video of time-lapse photography:
Click here for more of the park’s extraordinary organisms
Lichen on the Wildlife Wheel
The Wildlife Wheel has been there, at the end of The Race, for more than twenty years. It has aged in those years, changed colour, split and grown a fascinating crop of lichens.
…and there’s more
by Clive Knight
Fly Agaric
by Clive Knight
This is a sequence of pictures of a Fly Agaric (Amanita muscaria) taken every day from last Friday, the 22nd, up until today, Tuesday 26th. The last picture shows the fungus fully developed at approximately 17cm across, but collapsed. I have found that when they are fully open they do not last long so I am keeping my eye on some more in the reserve hopefully to take pictures of one fully open and still upright.
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The header picture is the first in this series, taken by Clive Knight on Friday 22nd October.
The fruiting bodies of a fungus living in a rotting log, found and photographed after yesterday’s rain by Clive Knight.
As usual, we are unable to identify this fungus and would really welcome the help of an expert.
Bioturbation
Wikipedia defines bioturbation as the reworking of soils and sediments by animals or plants. Here is a video of a system with and without soil fauna such as earthworms, mites and isopods over a 15 week period: this is what is happening to the fallen leaves all over the reserve.
Sulphur tuft (Hypholoma fasciculare) growing on dead wood in the copse between Sleepers and Sheep Field.
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King Alfred’s cakes
Daldinia concentrica: known as King Alfred’s cakes or coal fungus grows on the park’s trees, in this case on a dead ash tree.
Read moreAmethyst deceiver
This post was first published last year, an introduction to some of the reserve’s beautiful fungi.
A message with beautiful pictures from photographer Simon Knight:
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Inkcaps
Inkcaps are a group of fungi with gills that liquefy as they mature and drip an inky black liquid that, in the past, was frequently used to make ink.
Read on for more about inkcaps:
Wood Wide Web
Researchers have discovered that the trees in a wood are connected by a network of mycorrhizal fungi that grow around and in their roots, a phenomenon they have called the Wood Wide Web.
Continue readingDead man’s fingers
Message from Tree Officer Rich Murphy:
I’m not sure if the quality of the picture will be much good but I found some dead man’s fingers in the copse in Simpson’ Field – I don’t know if they are on the list for known fungi within the park.
Thank you, Rich; and no, they are not on our list of known fungi in the reserve.
Continue reading “Dead man’s fingers”
Turkeytail
A fungus called turkeytail (Trametes versicolor) photographed in the reserve by Clive Knight and identified for us by Tree Officer Rich Murphy.
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Orchids!
Yesterday, while surveying pollinator networks in the reserve, Ian Bushell discovered a colony of bright pink pyramidal orchids (Anacamptis pyramidalis), an important new species for the reserve.
Continue readingFairy rings
One of several fairy rings in Lambrok Meadow, caused by the mycelium of a subterranean fungus.
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Collybia velutipes (winter fungus) photographed in the park by Ian Bushell
Oak factoid
There are 2,300 species associated with oak, 320 of which are found only on oaks. Here is a gallery of wildlife photographed in the park’s oaks.
Header picture: Oak Bridge by DKG
Wood ear
This post was first published in January 2019
Auricularia auricula-judae is one of the few fungi that produces fruiting bodies all year round. Winter hardly seems to trouble it and we found these specimens in the strip of wood between Lambrok Meadow and Kestrel Field, in the second week of January with the early sunshine just beginning to melt the frost that had covered them overnight.
Continue reading “Wood ear”
Candlesnuff fungus
A tiny candlesnuff fungus, Xylaria hypoxylon, growing in the rotting wood and moss of the old willow tree (number 5477 ) by the footpath alongside the Lambrok Tributary.
Continue reading “Candlesnuff fungus”
Southwick Country Park Nature Reserve 