| Key to the list at the end of each section: | |
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Black - Bio Blitz 2015 not photographed |
Blue - Bio Blitz 2015 photographed |
Red - photographed & identified by Volunteers |
Green - from NatureSpot |
All pictures are taken on the reserve. |
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Hover over the following pictures to enlarge |
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Fungi & Lichen below
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Fungus (plural: fungi) is a kind of living organism: yeasts, moulds and mushrooms that exist as a single filamentous or multicellular body. The filament is known as hyphae multinuclear with cell wall containing chitin or cellulose or both, others are parasitic saprophytic on other organisms and reproduce sexually and asexually. The fungi are a separate kingdom of living things, different from animals and plants. |
| Fungi | |
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Artist's Fungus - Ganoderma applanatum John F Ganoderma applanatum is a very common perennial bracket fungus. The underside is creamy white and can be scratched with a sharp point to leave brown marks and so produce artistic images - hence the common name. This tough bracket lives for many years, developing noticeable annual growth ridges on the upper surface. If you cut through a bracket you will see layers of tube pores - the number of layers gives a clue to the age of the fruitbody. |
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Candlesnuff (Stagshorn) - Xylorice hypoxilon John F 20111119 Holt Acre This fungus, appears throughout the year but is particularly noticeable during late autumn and winter. This ubiquitous little rotter is one of the pyromycetes or flask fungi. Rarely fruiting in photogenic groups, this morbid fungus is the type species of the Xylaria genus. It need hardy be mentioned that these tough but insubstantial fungi are not generally considered to be edible. This is one of the last fungi to attack rotting wood, and is often preceded by a succession of other species such as Honey Fungus (Armillaria mellea and it relatives) and Sulphur Tuft (Hypholoma fasciculare). |
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Clustered Bonnet - Mycena inclinata John F 20111119 Nearly always found on oak roots, stumps or fallen trunks and branches or on dead parts of standing oak trees, the Clustered Bonnet is still referred to by some people as the Oak Bonnet. It has (depending on your nose!) either a spicy or a rancid odour that helps distinguish it from the many similar bonnet mushrooms. The crenelate (scalloped) cap margin and white woolly base of the stem are features that help separate this bonnet from several others of similar size and equally varied range of colours. As you might expect from its English name, the Clustered Bonnet occurs in bunched groups more often than singly, and it is found throughout Britain and Ireland wherever oak trees live... or more accurately where they die. |
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Dead man’s fingers - Xylaria polymorpha John F October 2020 Swollen, blackened ‘fingers’ reaching for the sky. Aptly named, dead man’s fingers spookily look as if someone buried beneath the woodland floor is trying to make a last-ditch attempt to escape. |
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Dead Moll's Fingers - Xylaria longipes John F October 2020 Swollen, blackened ‘fingers’ reaching for the sky. Aptly named, dead man’s fingers spookily look as if someone buried beneath the woodland floor is trying to make a last-ditch attempt to escape. |
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Dryad's Saddle - Polyporus squamosus John F Polyporus squamosus, commonly referred to as Dryad's Saddle, grows in overlapping clusters and tiers on broad-leaved trees. (A dryad is a mythical wood-nymph.) The fruit bodies appear in summer and autumn. Insects quickly devour these large brackets, and in warm weather they can decay from full splendour to almost nothing in just a few days. Sycamore, willow, poplar and walnut trees are all commonly attacked by this impressively large and attractive fungus. When growing on the trunks of trees this polypore forms brackets that do look rather like saddles; however, they can also occur on fallen trunks and large branches or emerge from the soil where a tree root is just below soil level. In these situations Polyporus squamosus takes on a very different form: a funnel. Some of these funnels are perfect horns; more often they are slightly one sided. |
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Field Mushroom - Agaricus campestris John F 20111119 The Field Mushroom, Agaricus campestris, is the most commonly eaten wild mushroom in Britain and Ireland. Meadows grazed by sheep, cattle or horses sometimes produce vast quantities of these fungi of summer and early autumn... but not every year, unfortunately. It is unwise to treat cap colour as a significant feature when identifying these kinds of mushrooms. Some Field Mushrooms are smooth and almost pure white while others are quite rough with dark-brown cap scales. Provided they are properly cooked and eaten in moderation (not as a daily dish!) Field Mushrooms are wholesome and very tasty. It is unwise to gather any food from the grassy verges of busy roads, because the soil, vegetation and fungal fruitbodies from such places may be polluted by toxins emitted from exhausts or from oil spills. |
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Jelly Ear - Auricularia auricula-judae John F 20140115 Auricularia auricula-judae, the Jelly Ear Fungus, is mainly seen in winter and spring. It grows mainly on dead elder trees and on fallen branches, but occasionally you may also find it growing on other kinds of hardwood. The so-called Jelly Fungi are not really a taxonomic group but more a rag-tag of basidiomycetes with jelly-like textures, although few are a soft as the jelly we eat with custard. Many are capable of reconstituting and continuing to produce spores when wetted after desiccation. If you are not put off by the strange appearance and sombre colour of the Jelly Ear fungus, it is in fact edible when cooked and very popular in some eastern countries. |
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King Alfred's Cakes - Daldinia concentrica John F 20140201 Map B-E3 & E4 Common referred to as King Alfred's Cakes (a reference to their burnt appearance, of course, because having been given shelter by a peasant woman Alfred, preoccupied by other concerns, was reputed to have inadvertently allowed her cakes to burn, having promised that he would watch her cakes cooking. They are also referred to as Cramp Balls (because carrying them was thought to cure attacks of cramps). These hard, inedible fungi appear most often on ash and beech wood but occasionally on other hardwood trees. Common and widespread in Britain and Ireland and found throughout most of mainland Europe |
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Oyster Mushroom - Pleurotus cornucopiae John F 20140113 So variable in size, shape and colour are the many kinds of oyster mushroom that confident identification of some species is tricky without resorting to microscopic analysis. The process is not helped by the fruiting habit of many Pleurotus species that seem to delight in emerging beyond reach, sometimes high up in the crowns of trees. For the most part the various oyster mushrooms are saprophytic on deciduous trees, and only very rarely are they found on conifers. Several similar species within the Pleurotus genus are often confused, and so distribution data for individual species in this complex group are inevitably subject to some uncertainty. |
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Parasol - Macrolepiota Procera John F 20111119 Macrolepiota procera, the Parasol Mushroom, is a choice edible species found on roadside verges, in neglected pastureland and on grassy seaside cliffs in summer and autumn. On National Nature Reserves in Britain it is an offence to pick wildflowers or fungi without special permission, which may be granted for research purposes. A fungal feast, no matter how innovative the recipe, certainly does not qualify as scientific research! In any case, this was such a perfect display and to do anything that would prevent other people from enjoying it would have been little short of vandalism. |
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Peppery Milk-Cap - Lactarius piperatus John F 20111119 Many growing in a circle Surely only a mushroom would wear white and then choose to live in a mucky place where finery can never be shown off to its best! Like the Fleecy Milkcap Lactarius vellereus, which almost invariably has lumps of earth and leaf litter adorning its pallid cap, the Peppery Milkcap Lactarius piperatus rarely shows its true colours: by the time a fruitbody is fully developed, its funnel-shaped cap often contains a diverse ecosystem of dead (and sometimes living) plant and animal organisms. These occasional mushrooms of deciduous and mixed woodland sometimes grow in rings, but more often they occur as solitary specimens or in very small groups. It is worth getting to recognise this milkcap from its crowded gills, long stem and scaleless cap: a taste test is a most unpleasant experience! |
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Peppery Roundhead - Stropharia pseudocyanea John F 20140123 Stropharia pseudocyanea is one of very few blue-green fungi. (In some instances the caps are nearer to green than to blue, and with age they tend to become brownish, but when young and fresh they are very beautiful and, despite their small stature, quite startling.) The caps, initially bell-shaped, flatten and turn paler from the centre. What makes this species instantly recognisable and truly memorable is not so much its admittedly attractive appearance but its distinctive smell - exactly like freshly ground pepper. Peppery Roundhead mushrooms are an occasional find throughout Britain and Ireland, occurring mainly in unimproved or semi-improved grassland. |
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Shaggy Inkcap - Coprinus comatus John F Commonly referred to as either the Shaggy Inkcap or the Lawyer's Wig, Coprinus comatus is a large and conspicuous edible (when young and fresh) fungus. It occurs in meadows, woods and roadside verges. Now recognised as belonging to the family Agaricaceae, because it was the type species of the Coprinus genus it has taken that generic name with it. For this reason most other inkcaps now belong to the genera Coprinopsis, Coprinellus and Parasola, and they are all members of the family Psathyrellaceae. The Shaggy Inkcaps seen in the picture show clearly the various stages of development and decay of the fruitbodies. |
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Stump Puffball - Lycoperdon pyriforme John F 20140201 Lycoperdon pyriforme, the Stump Puffball, is one of the most gregarious of all fungi. The banana of the fungi world, its bunches create impressive vistas sometimes stretching way into the far distance in woodlands where thinning has taken place and the lopped branches have been left for Mother Nature (mainly in her mycological guise) to dispose of. These pear-shaped fruitbodies are often seen swarming over dead stumps. (If they appear to be growing on soil this is not so but simply an indicator of buried trunks or branches.) The Stump Puffball fruits most often in large, densely-packed groups on decaying tree stumps and sometimes on well-rotted fallen branches |
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Sulphur Tuft - Hypholoma fasciculare John F 20140115 From April through to the first heavy frosts, a walk in mixed woodland rarely fails to reveal Sulphur Tufts fruiting on fallen trees, decaying stumps or, occasionally, hollow trunks of living trees. This wood-rotting fungus is not a fussy feeder it tackles deciduous hardwoods as well as conifers apparently with equal relish, although it is most effective in rotting broadleaf trees (hardwoods), which generally have a higher cellulose content and rather lower lignin content than conifers. Displays of Sulphur Tufts can recur on large stumps for two or three years in succession before the timber is reduced to its hard core of lignin, at which point other lignin-eating fungi move in to finish it off. |
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Turkey tail - Trametes versicolor John F 20140113 Map B-D3 The top surface of the cap shows typical concentric zones of different colours. The flesh is 1–3 mm thick and has leathery texture. Older specimens, such as the one pictured, can have zones with green algae growing on them, thus appearing green. It commonly grows in tiled layers. The cap is rust-brown or darker brown, sometimes with blackish zones. Turkeytail fungus (formerly known as the Many-Zoned Polypore) can be found all through the year, but it is most obvious in the winter months when deciduous trees are bare. This very variable fungus grows mainly on dead hardwood, including stumps and standing dead trees as well as fallen branches. |
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Unknown John F Nov 19th 2011 I haven't a clue what this is - not seen an example since. It could be Bitter Bracket - Postia stiptica but not sure |
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Variable Oysterling - Crepidotus variabilis |
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Waxcap John F 20140115 Map A-06 93 The most distinctive and visible components of the grassland fungi. These are the brightly coloured and sometimes shiny mushrooms of the genus Hygrocybe, commonly seen in the Autumn. The most distinctive and visible component of the grassland mycota are the waxcap fungi, belonging to the genus Hygrocybe. Members of this genus typically possess brightly coloured pilei which are often conferred a 'shiny' appearance by the presence of a glutinous surface layer. Some 60 species of Hygrocybe occur in Europe most commonly in Western and Northern regions. |
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White Brain Fungus - Exidia thuretiana John F 20140115 Exidia thuretiana appears on rotting hardwood, and particularly beech. In dry weather this fungus shrinks and becomes quite hard. You will need wet weather to find this fungus: during dry spells it shrivels up almost completely to leave just a transparent rubbery patch on the host wood. Autumn and winter are the best times to look for this species. Exidia thuretiana occurs throughout Britain and Ireland, but in most areas it is rather an uncommon find. |
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Witches' Butter - Exidia glandulosa Often referred to as Black Witch's (or Witches') Butter, perhaps because of its butter-like consistency and greasy surface when wet as well as its sombre colour, occurs throughout the year on dead hardwood. |
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Wrinkled Club - Clavulina rugosa John F Oct 2020 This small club fungus is often solitary or in scattered groups among the moss beside woodland footpaths. The club is flattened in cross section and has very few irregularly-shaped branches. The branch tips are blunt rather than having pointed tips as other white clubs, such as White Spindles do. Very common in woodlands in most parts of mainland Britain and Ireland, as indeed it is in most other parts of northern Europe, Clavulina rugosa seems to be much rarer in the warmer countries of southern Europe. This species is also recorded in North America and in many other temperate parts of the world. |
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Yellow Brain Fungus - Tremella mesenterica John F Feb 2017 There are some strange things in our natural world in Glen Parva and this is one of them! This seems more like slime than a fungus but then fungi come in such a diverse array of forms, shapes, sizes and colours. This one has the wonderful common name of the yellow brain fungus (Tremella mesenterica) and it is certainly yellow! It starts lemon yellow, then becomes egg yoke coloured before drying orange. In its early stages it gelatinous, watery and translucent but it becomes brittle when dry. It is found on dead branches of hazel and gorse and it can also occur on ash, beech and some other broad-leaved trees. It is visible all year and is quite common. |
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Bio Blitz ------ 26-06-2015 blue & black |
Shaggy Inkcap - Coprinus comatus Shaggy Parasol - Chlorophyllum rhacodes Stump Puffball - Lycoperdon pyriforme Sulphur Tuft - Hypholoma fasciculare Turkey tail - Trametes versicolor Unknown Fungi ? Variable Oysterling - Crepidotus variabilis Waxcap ? White Brain Fungus - Exidia thuretiana White-rot Fungus - Phanerochaete velutina Witches Butter - Exidia glandulosa Wrinkled Club - Clavulina rugosa Yellow Brain Fungus - Tremella mesenterica Added by Harry Ball Clouded Agaric - Clitocybe nebularis Coriolellus albidus Stinkhorn - Phallus impudicus |
| Lichen | |
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Green Lichen – Xanthoria parietina John F 20140115 Map B-20 81 near Bridle entrance also at B-20 89 Foliose, pale- to golden-yellow or orange, grey in shade, lacking isidia or soredia; apothecia usually present, margins concolorous with thallus, discs orange. Throughout Britain, generally very common on nutrient-enriched bark (especially on Elder, Sambucus nigra) and stonework, often abundant on coastal rocks (see, also, X. aureola), further increasing as a result of nitrate/ammonia deposition from atmospheric pollution. |
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Grey Lichen – Physcia ascendens John F 20140115 Map B-20 81 also at B-20-89 Foliose, lobes with long marginal cilia and usually with helmet-like soralia at the tips; apothecia shortly-stalked with blue-black or thinly pruinose discs. Widespread and common on twigs, bark, walls and concrete, often in company with P. tenella and Xanthoria species as indicators of nitrogen enrichment. Generally more robust than P. tenella, with which it is usually mixed. |
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Large Lichen - Parmotrema perlatum
John F 26th November 2020 A relatively large, foliose species with smooth thallus, pearl-grey when dry, more greenish when damp, with very short, inconspicuous and often sparse, black, marginal cilia, underside black, with simple rhizines and a bare, tan-coloured zone towards the margin, soralia well delimited, marginal and apical; apothecia rare. Widespread, common in much of western and southern Britain; until recently largely absent from central and eastern England as a result of sulphur dioxide pollution, but now rapidly recolonising these areas as SO2 levels have dropped. |
| Parmotrema perlatum Physcia ascendens Xanthoria parietina |