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March fungi |
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Liz Heard
Senior Member Joined: 27 Apr 2010 Location: South West Status: Offline Points: 1429 |
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Posted: 02 May 2019 at 5:47pm |
Thought i'd just throw this one into the hat. A locally common UK species - but one that nobody ever sees!
This Summer Truffle (Tuber aestivum) was passed to our Fungus Group by a lady who's dog dug it up in her garden. There are previous instances of them turning up in the seemingly unlikely setting of a housing estate . First time i've seen one 'in the flesh' myself. - |
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Liz Heard
Senior Member Joined: 27 Apr 2010 Location: South West Status: Offline Points: 1429 |
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Alas no. Quite a few species occur in rings, although some differentiate between ones in woodland and those in grass.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0007152882800138?via%3Dihub |
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chubsta
Senior Member Joined: 26 Apr 2013 Location: Folkestone,Kent Status: Offline Points: 430 |
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we have plenty of Fairy Rings on The Green in Hythe so will keep an eye open - are they the most common to be in rings?
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Liz Heard
Senior Member Joined: 27 Apr 2010 Location: South West Status: Offline Points: 1429 |
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Here's one to look out for Chubsta.
These are St George's Mushrooms (Calocybe gambosa) and they are now cropping up left, right and centre hereabouts. The common name comes from their fruiting time (within a couple of weeks either side of April 23rd, St George's Day). Sometimes found on bare earth in woods, but mostly occurring in grassland, parks and along roadsides. They are medium-sized mushrooms, frequently densely packed together and trooping in lines or in rings. I've a feeling i read they show a particular liking for alkaline soils (which you're on i believe?) Key id characters: habitat - grassy places time of year (little else about in spring) strong, mealy smell uniformly cream to white in colour throughout compared to other, similarly-proportioned mushrooms, St George's have thick flesh but a conspicuously shallow gill depth |
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chubsta
Senior Member Joined: 26 Apr 2013 Location: Folkestone,Kent Status: Offline Points: 430 |
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It didn't have 'opening times' when I lived there, I used to go through there at all times to get to the Silver Bream lake at the end - never gave a thought as to whether anyone owned it all, but it was a big prison training centre in those days so I guess we kids just thought we had access - just wandering off in the country seemed easier then.
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Liz Heard
Senior Member Joined: 27 Apr 2010 Location: South West Status: Offline Points: 1429 |
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Suzy. Think Inspector Clouseau or Police Chief Wiggum is probably more accurate. Less 'sleuth' more 'strewth!'
No, not been to Tortworth Arboretum yet Chubsta. Still trying to fit in a visit there. Don't know if it was the same when you knew it, but these days it's got very 'quirky' opening times. According to Google, closed all day every day except Sundays - when it's open 24 hours! |
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chubsta
Senior Member Joined: 26 Apr 2013 Location: Folkestone,Kent Status: Offline Points: 430 |
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See, it just looks like a toadstool to me...
Was that in Tortworth?
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Suzy
Senior Member Joined: 06 Apr 2005 Location: United Kingdom Status: Offline Points: 1447 |
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Good work Sherlock!
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Suz
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Liz Heard
Senior Member Joined: 27 Apr 2010 Location: South West Status: Offline Points: 1429 |
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Looking very ragged (this is how i found them), but despite appearances, this is my best fungus find of 2019 (so far)..
Although arriving at an id might frequently entail navigating a complex route via expensive and hard-to-get specialist books, chemical reagents and microscopic study of spore 'ornamentation', other times a simple thing like a distinctive smell or the species of tree it's on can mean a motorway shortcut to it. Having narrowed these down to Entoloma by gill colour and other general characteristics, i got to species by the relatively unusual fruiting time (spring), plus the lack of bad smell, the tufted habit and the fact there was an orchard with trees the species associates with nearby. Had some agreement from my Fungus Group that these are Shield Pinkgill Entoloma clypeatum Uncommon . |
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Liz Heard
Senior Member Joined: 27 Apr 2010 Location: South West Status: Offline Points: 1429 |
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Ah, the rubbery brown texture and the host species (Elder) denote - very common species - Ear or Jelly Ear Fungus Auricularia auricula-judae. Until relatively recently, it was known as Jew's Ear (the Latin name somehow managed to cheat the censor's guillotine). Nothing to do with Jews and so-called because as apochryphal legend has it, Judas Iscariot hanged himself from an Elder. You wonder how given the soft, spindly and very brittle nature of the wood in question! Does the species even occur in the Middle East i wonder? Maybe he travelled to Europe to commit assisted suicide...
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