by Simon Knight
I was looking for fungi recently in the park, but because it’s now getting late in the fungi season, I wasn’t finding anything that interesting. I was about to head home when the moss on a nearby oak tree caught my attention.
Continue reading “Mycena pseudocorticola”
Sulphur tuft (Hypholoma fasciculare) growing on dead wood in the copse between Sleepers and Sheep Field.
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Our trees have internet!
A message with beautiful pictures from photographer Simon Knight:
Continue reading “Amethyst deceiver”
This is fly agaric (Amanita muscaria) found, rather unusually, under a willow tree in the park; birch and pine are its preferred partners.
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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.
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The latest update on the phenomenal growth of the shaggy bracket fungus on the ash tree at Fiveways.
The shaggy bracket fungus on the ash tree at Fiveways, first reported by Clive Knight and identified for us by our Tree Officer Rich Murphy, has grown HUGE.
Continue reading “Inonotus hispidus”
There is a group of shaggy parasols, the fruiting bodies of Chlorophyllum rhacodes, just coming up under the first oak tree as you come through the park’s main gate.
Pictures by Suzanne Humphries
The fungus that Clive Knight photographed on the ash tree at Fiveways is Inonotus hispidus commonly known as shaggy bracket, shaggy polypore or velvet fungus. Our Tree Officer, Rich Murphy, identified it for us.
Continue reading “Identified!”
Question from Tom Martin:
Found this on the pavement near my house. Do you know what it is?
It’s June and we are nearly half way through 2020. Here is the round dozen of species that have been identified in the park for the first time this year.
Continue reading “Half time score”
Wood ear (Auricular auricula-judae) found growing on a branch brought down in one of the copses by Storm Ciara.
This is either yellow brain fungus (Tremella mesenterica) or witches’ butter (Tremella aurantia); even Wikipedia seems confused about it.
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Our quest to identify some of the many lichens that grow in the park continues with common orange lichen, Xanthoria parietina, also known as yellow scale or maritime sunburst lichen.
Continue reading “Common orange lichen”
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.
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We have been more successful in 2019 at identifying some of the enormous number of fungi that grow in the park. We were able to add five new species to our rather sparse fungi list.
1.Hypholoma fasciculare Sulphur Tuft
2. Xylaria hypoxylon Candle snuff
3.Trametes hirsuta Hairy bracket fungus
4. Fuligo septica Dog’s vomit slime mould
5. Amanita muscaria Fly Agaric
Header picture – one of the many species we have been unable to identify.
. . . trametes hirsuta growing on dead oak in the wood between Kestrel Field and Lambrok Meadow.
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Read on for pictures of 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”
. . . . also known, for obvious reasons, as dog vomit slime mould; found in the long grass in Brunts Field.
In the park, we have lost many of our ash saplings to ash dieback and the disease is spreading rapidly.
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Slime moulds are extraordinary things; here is a fascinating video of time-lapse photography:
Sulphur tuft (Hypholoma fasciculare) growing on dead wood in the copse between Sleepers and Sheep Field.
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by DKG
Southwick Country Park Nature Reserve 