U3A Exploring @ Britty Wood
Puttenham Lower Common and Britty Wood, 7 October 2022
This turned into a fungal foray and we didn’t manage to get very far due to the large amount of fungi found. Below is the report from our leader, Sara Shepley.
One of the problems with this time of year is that a walk so often morphs into a fungus foray and so it was with our October walk. After a slow start, probably caused by the summer drought, fungi are appearing everywhere and in large numbers. The recent rain and the comparatively mild weather have contributed to this plenty in no small way. Even before we left the car park we had found a fine specimen of a Brown Birch Bolete, Leccinum scabrum, a cluster of Purple Brittlegills, Russula atropurpurea, and one of the Poison Pies, which are in the Hebeloma genus. Lower Puttenham Common is typical acid greensand habitat with Birch and Scots Pine being the dominant species, so we encountered lots of Brown Rollrims, Paxillus involutus; Tawny Grisettes Amanita fulva, and Blushers, Amanita rubescens. Stars of the show were the tiny earpick fungus, Auriscalpium vulgare, which grows on pine cones and the even smaller Marasmius hudsonii, Holly Parachute which is only found on dead Holly leaves. Below is the list of what we found:
Sara Shepley
- Lactarius turpis – Ugly Milkcap
- Lactarius tabidus — Birch Milkcap
- Russula delica — Milk White Brittlegill
- Leccinum scabrum — Brown Birch Bolete
- Russula atropurpurea — Purple Brittlegill
- Amanita fulva — Tawny Grisette
- Amanita rubescens — Blusher
- Paxillus involutus — Brown Rollrim
- Amanita citrina — False Death Cap
- Auriscalpium vulgare — Earpick Fungus
- Mycena leptocephala — Nitrous Bonnet
- Chlorociboria aeruginascens — Green Elfcup
- Crepidotus sp. (probably variabilis)
- Claviceps purpurea — Ergot
- Mycena epipteryigia — Yellowleg Bonnet
- Hypholoma fasciculare — Sulphur Tuft
- Russula aeruginea — Green Brittlegill
- Russula velenovskyi — Coral Brittlegill
- Amanita excelsa var. spissa — Grey spotted Amanita
- Mycena inclinata — Clustered Bonnet
- Ganoderma australe — Southern Bracket
- Psathyrella piluliformis — Common Stump Brittlestem
- Marasmius hudsonii — Holly Parachute
- Marasmius quercophilus — Doesn’t appear to have an English name but Oak Parachute would fit
- Stereum gausapatum — Bleeding Oak Crust
- Suillus grevillei — Larch Bolete
- Lactarius subdulcis — Mild Milkcap
- Calocera viscosa — Yellow Stagshorn
- Psathyrella candolleana — Pale Brittlestem
- Boletus edulis — Cep
- Baeospora myosura — Conifercone Cap
- Gymnopus confluens — Clustered Toughshank (but this one was, untypically, on its own)
- Byssomerulius corium — Netted Crust (one of the resupinate fungi)
- Neoboletus praestigiator (syn. Boletus luridiformis — Scarletina Bolete
- Amanita muscaria — Fly Agaric
- Gymnopilus penetrans — Common Rustgill (I suggested this could be G. junonius but this species has a pronounced ring on the stem which our specimens didn’t have)
- Russula claroflava — Yellow Swamp Russula
- Boletus pruinatus — Matt Bolete
- Russula parazurea — Powdery Brittlegill
Sara Shepley
Here are some of the photos I took
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