Fungus Foray, Lightwater Country Park, 26 November 2006

BRIAN SPOONER 

Our annual foray was again held jointly with Spelthorne Natural History Society.  We returned to Lightwater Country Park, an area of woodland and heathland which covers almost 60 acres.  Having paid our first visit there last year in a hard frost, which had destroyed many of the fungal fruit bodies, we hoped for better weather.  This time we braved pouring rain!  Despite that, we had a surprisingly good turn-out of forayers, with at least 14 people at the start.  As the rain got heavier numbers dwindled but hardier forayers stayed on, and eventually the rain eased and there was even some sunshine for a while.  Our route was as last year, basically around the ponds at the eastern end of the area, though such was the flooding that the route at the farthest point was quite impassable and we had to retrace our steps.
 

Despite the conditions we recorded a remarkable list of species, 110 in total including a couple of lichens.  They included mostly common species such as the mycorrhizal Russula betularum and R. ochroleuca under deciduous trees, and R. emetica and Lactarius hepaticus, both associated with pines.  The distinctive coconut-smelling Lactarius glyciosmus was also found, and a single specimen of Amanita muscaria (fly agaric), rather past its best having lost the characteristic white veil remnants in the cap due to the rain.  Various wood-inhabiting bracket fungi and their relatives were collected, including the pinkish Peniophora incarnata, forming conspicuous patches on fallen branches of gorse, and Lenzites betulinus.  This distinctive bracket fungus has a hairy, zoned surface similar to the common Trametes versicolor, which was also seen on stumps and logs, but has gills rather than pores beneath.  Also notable were the slender club-fungus Macrotyphula juncea growing in a large group amongst beech leaf litter, not a rare species but often missed, and the polypore Coltricia perennis which has a central stem and grows on soil usually associated with burning.  Ascomycetes (cup- and flask-fungi) recorded were mostly microfungi, including several powdery mildews, leaf parasites on various plants, but there were two larger cup-fungi: the common white saddle fungus (Helvella crispa), and the hare's-ear (Otidea bufonia).

We may try for 'third time lucky' to this site next year, as there seem to be plenty of fungi to find there.  The species list, as last time, has been sent to the rangers for their records.

Species list

Agarics (45)
Agaricus silvaticus
Amanita fulva
Amanita muscaria
Baeospora myosura on buried pine cones
Clitocybe metachroa
Clitocybe nebularis
Collybia butyracea
Coprinus atramentarius
Coprinus micaceus
Cortinarius 'flexipes'
Crepidotus herbarum on Molinia dead leaves
Crepidotus variabilis on twigs & rotten leaves and stems of Brachypodium
Gymnopilus penetrans on pine rotten cones & branches etc.
Hygrophorus hypothejus
Hypholoma fasciculare on stumps
Laccaria amethystea
Laccaria laccata
Laccaria proxima
Lactarius glyciosmus
Lactarius hepaticus with pines
Lactarius tabidus
Lactarius turpis under Betula
Lactarius vietus
Lyophyllum decastes
Melanoleuca polioleuca
Mycena galericulata
Mycena galopus
Mycena inclinata
Mycena olivaceomarginata in sand, rootball of Pteridium
Mycena polyadelpha on fallen leaves Quercus
Mycena vitilis in litter
Naucoria escharioides
Paxillus involutus
Pleurotus ostreatus on Betula stump
Pluteus pellitus
Psathyrella piluliformis
Russula atropurpurea
Russula betularum
Russula emetica
Russula ochroleuca
Russula sardonia
Tapinella atrotomentosa
Tricholoma cingulatum
Tricholoma sulphureum

Aphyllophorales (35)
Auricularia auricula-judae on Sambucus
Bjerkandera adusta on stump
Calocera viscosa on pine stump
Chondrostereum purpureum on Betula
Coltricia perennis
Coniophora puteana
Cylindrobasidium laeve on stump
Dacrymyces stillatus on pine branch
Dacryobolus karstenii on decorticated branch ?Pinus
Daedalea quercina on Quercus stump
Daedaleopsis confragosa on Betula
Exidia nucleata on dead branch
Exidia truncata on Quercus twig
Exidiopsis effusa
Ganoderma australe
Lenzites betulinus on Betula stump
Leucogyrophana romellii on wooden post
Macrotyphula juncea
Meruliopsis corium
Peniophora incarnata on Ulex
Peniophora lycii on Ulex
Peniophora quercina on Quercus branch
Phellinus ferruginosus
Phlebia radiata
Piptoporus betulinus on Betula trunks
Postia subcaesia
Ptychogaster albus on Pinus
Radulomyces confluens on standing trunk, Fagus
Schizophyllum commune on Betula stump
Scleroderma citrinum
Skeletocutis amorphus on decorticated pine log
Stereum rugosum on S. cinerea trunk
Stereum hirsutum
Trametes versicolor
Tremella mesenterica

Rust fungi
Melampsora larici-populina on leaves Populus x canadensis
Melampsoridium betulinum on leaves Betula pubescens
Phragmidium bulbosum on leaves Rubus fruticosus agg.
Phragmidium violaceum telia on leaves Rubus fruticosus agg.

Ascomycetes (18)
Ascocoryne sarcoides
Chaetosphaerella phaeostroma on Diatrype stigma, on Fagus
Chlorosplenium aeruginascens
Diatrype stigma on branches Fagus sylvatica & Crataegus
Diatrypella quercina on branch Quercus robur
Helvella crispa on soil
Hyaloscypha aureliella on bark and trunk Pinus sylvestris
Hypomyces chrysospermum (Sepedonium state) on Paxillus
Hypoxylon multiforme on Betula log
Microsphaera alphitoides on Quercus leaves
Microsphaera sparsa on Viburnum opulus
Mycosphaerella punctiformis on fallen leaves Quercus robur
Otidea bufonia among leaf litter
Propolomyces versicolor
Rhopographus filicinus on Pteridium dead stems
Sawadaea bicornis on leaves Acer pseudoplatanus
Uncinula adunca on leaves Salix cinerea var. oleifolia
Xylaria hypoxylon on old stump

Hyphomycetes & coelomycetes (6)
Asteromella castaneicola on Castanea leaves
Asteromella sp. on Crataegus leaves
Asteromella sp. on Quercus leaves
Hainesia rubi on Phragmidium bulbosum & P. violaceum
Ramularia urticae on leaves Urtica dioica

Lichens
Lecanora chlarotera on Quercus branch
Melanelia subaurifera on Quercus branch

Others
Plasmopara umbelliferarum on living leaves of Aegopodium