Newsletter: March 2015 Welcome to the March 2015 Edition of the TVFG Newsletter

Yet again the 2014 fungus season started dry in September, with timely rain in October and a mild, damp autumn/early winter. As a result, the season has lasted into the New Year, although by mid-January 2015, it had turned decidedly chilly. One effect of the early dry spell seems to have been a reduction in the numbers and variety of mycorrhizal fungi.

Interestingly, all but one of our forays, including our final foray at Sulham in December, resulted in identification of between 50 and 70 species. The exception was the all-day foray at Greenham and Bowdown, which yielded more than twice that number of species.

Finally, my thanks to all of you who have contributed to this edition. I would particularly like to thank Harold Gough, who provided so many stunning photographs from the forays that he attended, that I have had real difficulty in deciding which material to use, and Caroline Jackson-Houlston for her beautiful illustration (opposite) of the Boletus luridiformis var. luridiformis found on the St Neots foray.

Mike Harrison ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A VINTAGE WAXCAP SEASON! Sandra Parkinson, who has good waxcap sites on her land at Chalkhills, reports that 2014 was the best waxcap season she has had since about 1998, both for the number of species and the quantity of caps.

She sees a few Hygrocybe species every year, but all are appearing later and later, perhaps because recently it has not been cold enough earlier in the season. The peak time for most species used to be mid-October, except for H. russocoriacea, which typically appears around early November and shows up until Christmas. This year, she found at least 7 species on 24th November and was able to eat Meadow Waxcap (H. pratensis var. pratensis) until mid-December.

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Boletus luridiformis var. luridiformis at St. Neots ©Caroline Jackson-Houlston

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WHAT’S THIS IN MY SOUP? That’s a good question, according to a recent paper by two Kew Mycologists. When they checked a commercial packet of dried porcini from China, from a shop in London, using DNA analysis, they found that of the 15 pieces sampled, all were one of three different species that did not yet have scientific names or descriptions.

Although it was already known that unidentified species were entering the porcini supply chain, this was a surprise. So – do you know what’s in your mushroom soup?

Reference: Dentinger, B.T. & Suz, L.M. (2014). What’s for dinner? Undescribed species in commercial porcini from China. PeerJ 2:e570 Available online

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2014 FORAY REPORTS

Hornley Common, Yateley: 14th September Joint Foray with West Weald FRG

Of the five people foraying, one was a WWFRG and one a TVFG member and three members of both.

The site is on acid soil. Some parts are dominated by broadleaved trees, especially birch but with significant oak, beech, chestnut and willow, while other parts are dominated by pine. A beech and chestnut slope which has provided rare hydnoids in the past, on this occasion only gave us Hydnum repandum.

Because it was a very dry September we spent much of the time in the damp woodland to the north of Hawley Lake.

Overall we found 55 species: more fungi than some people had expected. Best finds were Volvariella bombycina, and Melanoleuca exscissa.

Mike Waterman ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

College Copse Farm: 20th September Joint Foray with Hampshire FRG

College Copse Farm is a working farm used to house the HWT‘s grazing herd, but still has patches of reportedly ancient, damp birch/willow/alder woodland. The dry ground did not encourage us as we walked across the farmland to the woodland, with the only excitement being dense clumps of the ringless Armillaria tabescens growing on dead oak stumps.

Once in the woodland, finds were still sparse but included several unusual species. The "roll-rim" Paxillus rubicundulus was found under alder and some gracile Amanitas under birch/willow turned out to be A. olivaceogrisea. A group of the small, hairy Phaemarasmius erinaceus found growing on a willow branch received my vote for “rind of the day”. Other habitat-specific species were Lactarius obscuratus, Hymenoscyphus salicellus found by Mike Waterman and Inocybe ovatocystis (with its balloon-like cystidia).

As has been normal this season, Paul Hugill’s box was soon bulging with resupinates, among which were Gloeocystidiellum clavuligerum - a first for Hampshire with only a handful of UK records from Surrey and Hertfordshire, and a couple more for his book; Hyphodontia arguta and Tomentella sublilacina, the latter also new to VC12 and the group.

Eric Janke (HFRG)

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UK Fungus Day 2014 – Chalkhills, Whitchurch: 12th October

The TVFG contribution to National Fungus Day involved a morning foray for members and an afternoon public foray for families. Both were very poorly attended - 4 in the morning, 4 in the afternoon - and no ‘families’, despite the dry weather (compared with 2013), and the reopening of the nearby bridge over the Thames.

TVFG is a small group, and it was known beforehand that some of the ‘core’ members would be unable to attend. Three members did visit the site beforehand, to do a recce and collect fungi for a static display at Chalkhills, for which I was most grateful. Even the recent rain after the long dry spell of weather was not enough to produce much in the way of fungi. In 2013 the static display covered the equivalent of 5 large tables - in 2014 only 2. In 2013 there was a display of about 2 dozen species from lawns or grassland – in 2014 only 4.

Shirley and Theo Kirstein came in the afternoon with a lovely set of specimens from sites in Hampshire and Berkshire – but there were virtually no members of the public to appreciate them.

The afternoon Foray was led by Rod D’ayala, with Caroline Jackson-Houlston, and I am most grateful to them for this. I stayed behind in the farm building to ‘supervise’ the fungi display – but this turned out to be unnecessary.

I would also like to thank WoTHabs for supervising car parking (2 cars!) and doing refreshments (mostly for TVFG members).

Sandra Parkinson ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

UK FUNGUS DAY 2015 -11th OCTOBER

Sandra will not be running this event, although she has offered her barn for a static fungi display, if other TVFG members want to help to support this national event to promote public interest, knowledge, and understanding of the importance of fungi to life on earth.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Greenham Common and Bowdown: 19th October Joint Foray with Hampshire FRG

After a week of relatively high temperatures for mid-October, with at least some rain every day, the weather was kind to us and stayed both warm and dry.

Thirteen forayers from HFRG and TVFG enjoyed a productive day. Although there were not huge numbers of fungi, there was enough variety to keep

everyone interested, with around 60 species found on Greenham Common itself and more than 100 at Bowdown .

We spent the morning on the common, where Alan Lucas found Phellinus conchatus (which he nominated as his find of the day) on a rotten stump and the little bell-shaped Calyptella campanula on a dead nettle stem. Eric Janke’s choice was the blue-black grassland species Entoloma atrocoruleum. Sue Rogerson found the grey resupinate Tulasnella thelephorea – the first time it has been recorded in Berkshire for almost 50 years.

In the afternoon, we moved on to the part of the nearby Bowdown Reserve known as the “bomb dump”. This was a damper site with more tree cover and a wider range of fungi, including a large drift of Geastrum triplex.

Geastrum triplex at Bowdown © Paul Hugill

Eric’s list of the more interesting fungi found there included Lactarius citriolens, Russula gracillima and Melanoleuca grammopodia (if only because it wasn’t M. polioleuca!)

Lactarius citriolens at Bowdown © Paul Hugill

Among the fungi identified by Alan was the unusual chisel-shaped ascomycete Glyphium elatum, growing on an attached hawthorn branch - a new Berkshire record. Paul Hugill nominated the spiny little resupinate Tubulicium vermiferum as his fungus of the day, but my favourite from Bowdown was the

little red-spored Melanophyllum haematospermum, which seems to be a regular at this site. I had seen it only once before, almost exactly a year previously, growing in our back garden in soil enriched with compost and bark chippings.

Mike Harrison ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

St Neots School, Eversley: 26th October

This was the first time we have visited this private site and perhaps because of this, the foray was one of the best attended this year. It didn’t disappoint with the 10 forayers identifying a total of 65 species.

Forayers at St Neots © Harold Gough

The site provides a mix of deciduous and coniferous woodland and also an area of damp grassland, which delivered several of the more interesting finds. These included examples of the bright orange parasitic Cordyceps militaris, and the yellow fairy club Clavulinopsis laeticolor.

Cordyceps militaris at St. Neots © Harold Gough

Also in the grass was the colourful Boletus luridiformis var. luridiformis. The coniferous woodland produced a number of typical species

including Phaeolus schweinitzii, Trichaptum abietinum, Baeospora myosura and the Earpick fungus, Auriscalpium vulgare.

A pale Leccinum attracted a bit of attention, but the colour change in the cut stem revealed it was only a washed out Leccinum scabrum, not L. holopus.

Mike Harrison ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Lackmore Woods: 27th October

As Gordon was unable to lead this foray, I deputised. Although it wasn’t a vintage year, the 6 forayers found a respectable 57 species, including 3 species of bolete: Chalchiporus piperatus, Boletus pruinatus and Boletus subtomentosus. There was also Clitocybe nebularis, growing in rings or partial rings, one of which, in the small area of woodland to the west of the road, was around 10m across. Another of the more numerous species found was the grey-capped Mycena archangeliana.

Mycena archangeliana at Lackmore © Harold Gough

A fallen tree trunk produced fruitbodies of the interesting jelly fungus Pseudohydnum gelatinosum (or Jelly Tongue) last recorded in Oxfordshire in 2001, according to the FRDBI.

Pseudohydnum gelatinosum at Lackmore © Harold Gough

Several unusual species found in 2013 turned up again, including Serpula himantioides: the “wild” form of dry rot and the bracket Postia wakefieldiae. Another nice find was the little Hemimycena tortuosa, with water droplets along the stem.

Hemimycena tortuosa at Lackmore© Harold Gough

Mike Harrison ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Charles Flower’s Wood: 3rd November

We had not previously visited this privately-owned wood, officially known as Mapleash Copse. The site was deciduous woodland, predominantly Beech, Oak and Hazel, but with some Chestnut, Ash and Willow.

On a damp morning, a dozen forayers found a respectable total of 62 species. An interesting find was Amanita submembranacea, with greyish veil remnants on the olive-grey cap. A clump of Grifola frondosa (Hen of the Woods) at the base of a beech tree was also a nice find.

Grifola frondosa at Mapleash Copse © Harold Gough

Another uncommon species was Tapinella panuoides, discovered growing in leaf litter. It has a rudimentary stem, or none at all, and decurrent, branching, bright yellowish-buff gills, bruising browner.

Mike Harrison

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Greenacres Health Club: 11th November

The Greenacres foray has been an annual feature of our programme for the past 7 years, but sadly this was almost certainly the last one, as the long threatened redevelopment is now imminent. It was therefore, fitting that the site provided a good display for the occasion and a good turnout of 12 forayers, identified a total 57 species – considerably more than the previous year.

Clavulina rugosa at Greenacres © Harold Gough

The grassy area along the entrance drive produced several waxcaps (not all identified) together with 3 different species of fairy clubs – Clavulinopsis helvola, C. laeticolor and Clavulina rugosa, together with the almost obligatory Lactarius deterrimus

We also found three species regularly present at this site: Auriscalpium vulgare, Strobilurus tenecellus and Baeospora myosura, all of which grow on buried or partially buried cones of conifers.

Auriscalpium vulgare at Greenacres © Harold Gough

There were also several clumps of a Ramaria, although we were unable identify this to species in what is a notoriously difficult group.

Ramaria species at Greenacres © Harold Gough

By the site entrance, there were large numbers of the small white Hemimycena lactea, growing on conifer needles underneath a layer of fallen sycamore leaves.

A grassy area on the other side of the tennis courts contained a specimen of the hardly delightful but descriptively named “dog vomit” slime mould Mucilago crustacea var. crustacea, also found at Greenacres in 2013.

My nomination for find of the day would be Hebeloma theobrominum, an uncommon fungus not previously recorded in the Thames Valley.

Mike Harrison

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Swinley Forest: 16th November

Although this foray was not rain-free, it was certainly an improvement on TVFG’s previous visit in 2012, when the atrocious weather meant that the foray was abandoned early. This was reflected in the number of species found: a total of 64 species, compared with only three in 2012.

Particularly notable on the area of burnt heathland was the earth fan, Thelephora terrestris f. terrestris, a fungus that we have not seen much recently. Here it was abundant in places.

Thelephora terrestris f. terrestris at Swinley ©Mike Harrison

It was nice to see Cortinarius semisanguineus, also not recorded by the group in the last 3 years. Other

species of interest were Gomphidius roseus (although no Suillus bovinus were found fruiting nearby) the relatively uncommon Hypholoma capnoides and the purple coloured resupinate Trichaptum abietinum.

Trichaptum abietinum at Swinley ©Mike Harrison

Fay Newbery, a plant pathologist from Reading University, identified several ascomycete pathogenic species, including 2 new to the group: Phyllactinia betulinum on a birch leaf and Stromatoseptoria castaneicola on a sweet chestnut leaf. The Phyllactinia was confirmed by DNA sequencing – not a method used too often on species we find.

A Daldinia species caused some interest, as it was growing on a burnt birch trunk. Unfortunately, although some spores were obtained, the fruitbodies were too old to allow us to confirm whether the species was the common Daldinia concentrica, or another species.

Mike Harrison

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Sulham Woods: 7th December

Our final outing of the season attracted 14 forayers: the largest number that we had seen all year. Perhaps the prospect of pre-Christmas lunch at the Greyhound provided one of the inducements, and we were all pleased to see Paul Cook, who despite an extremely busy schedule, had agreed to lead the foray.

Instead of following our usual route, we headed off down a different path, heading more to the north. Despite the date, there were still plenty of fungi to find and altogether a provisional total of 65 different species were identified, with perhaps more to come.

One of the more notable of the species found was

Phleogena faginea, - a small fungus growing on an oak trunk- which has a smell like fenugreek or curry, particularly when it is dry. This smell gives this fungus its English name: the Fenugreek Stalkball

Phleogena faginea at Sulham © Harold Gough

A polypore growing on a pine log turned out to be Ischnoderma benzoinum, another good find. A further bracket growing on pine was the uncommon Postia rennyi, with only 72 British records.

A specimen of Phlebia radiata found growing on a log was duller in colour than some I’ve seen elsewhere. This species often develops more attractive pink and red tinges, rather than the predominantly orange, brown and beige seen here.

Phlebia radiata at Sulham © Harold Gough

A nettle stem produced the tiny black, conical ascomycete Leptosphaeria acuta. Two other small ascomycetes identified by Paul were Chaetosphaeriella phaeostroma, commonly found growing with, or on, stromatic pyrenomycetes such as Diatrype and Helminthosphaeria clavariarum which causes blackening on Clavulina species – in this case C. coralloides.

Mike Harrison

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GOODBYE HIMALAYAN BALSAM?

Some pathogenic fungi can be useful. In a recent trial, a rust fungus was released in locations in Berkshire, Cornwall and Middlesex, to control one of the UK’s most invasive weeds: the alien Himalayan Balsam (Impatiens glandulifera). This weed, an aggressive coloniser, particularly of riverbanks and

other damp places, out-competes native species. Its eradication is difficult and very expensive using existing methods and it is hoped that over time, the rust will reverse its spread.

The trial followed several years of research to find one of the many insects or fungi attacking the plant which could be released to control the weed while leaving native species unharmed. CABI, the organisation responsible for the research found that the rust fungus Puccinia komarovii var. glandulifera, also from the Himalayas, which lives its entire life cycle on the Himalayan Balsam, did just that.

Mike Harrison

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AVAILABLE NOW:

Resupinate fungi, which some people know as “rugs” or “paint”, are usually found on tree stumps or fallen trunks and branches. They can be tricky to identify, but help is now at hand and I am delighted that this book, by Paul Hugill and Alan Lucas, is now available.

The book contains a full page entry for each of the 290 species recorded to date in Hampshire, including a few recent finds not yet recorded on the FRDBI. About 250 of these include a high quality half page colour photo. The remainder will have a half page space for photos, which will be emailed to buyers of the book, as and when they become available. The book is in A5 format, fully indexed with a soft gloss cover, and 348 gloss pages.

The primary purpose of the book, as the title implies, is as a field guide based on the visual characteristics of the specimens (for which a hand lens is essential). It does not contain details of microscopy.

The book costs £15, plus first class postage and packaging, if required (£3.65 within the UK). Everyone who has expressed an interest will already have been contacted directly by email and may have already

received their copies. If you are interested, but haven’t already let Paul know, you can simply email him at

hugill386@btinternet.com

I’ve already bought my copy: don’t miss yours.

Mike Harrison

Stop Press-

There are already plans for a "sequel", which will be a companion volume containing full microscopy details for all the Hampshire resupinate species (possibly all UK species), and perhaps a suitable key. This will eliminate the need to search for those hard-to-find, out-of-print texts such as Corticiaceae of North Europe and Nordic Macromycetes Vol 3. It will also be a lot cheaper! Paul tells me that the draft is still at an early stage, but the hope is to publish before the end of this year. I will keep you up to date on progress as it develops.

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MORE BAD NEWS FOR OUR ASH TREES

According to recent articles in the Sunday Telegraph, (1st and 8th February) the number of British woods affected by Ash Die-back, caused by Chalara fraxinea has almost tripled in the last two years. The disease was present in almost 1000 sites at the end of 2014.

One glimmer of hope is that it will be possible to identify strains of ash with resistance to the pathogenic Chalara fungus. Apparently around 80% of ash trees in affected areas are likely to die from the disease. Some trees seem able to recover from Chalara infection, while others seem to avoid infection altogether. In the meantime, the Government policy is to attempt to “slow the spread” of the disease and encourage the replanting of alternative species in affected areas.

With around 80 million trees, the ash represents the third largest population of trees in the U.K. Some experts now think that the disease will eventually spread across the country. If this happens, even if some trees survive, it would be potentially catastrophic for those species dependant on ash, including obviously, many species of fungi.

Ash die-back is of course, only one of the many threats to trees from plant diseases and pests. According to the distinguished ecologist, Dr Oliver Rackham, “The greatest threat to the world’s trees and forests is the globalisation of plant diseases.” He criticises “the casual way in which plants and soil are shipped and flown around the globe in commercial quantities around the world, inevitably bringing with them diseases to which the plants at their destination have no resistance”. Let’s hope that someone grasps this particular nettle - and soon.

Mike Harrison ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

TREASURER’S REPORT

We made a loss this year, but we always do in a year when there’s a BMS team leaders’ meeting –many thanks to Mike Waterman for attending on our behalf. Newsletter costs are considerably less now that most copies are sent out by email, thanks to Mike Harrison.

Sadly, subscription income was down on previous years. Our paid up membership was only 15 people, 4 of whom had paid in advance.

I don’t see any serious cause for concern and suggest that subs remain at £2 per household for 2015

Gordon Crutchfield – Treasurer

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OUR FUNGAL TOP OF THE POPS

I’ve analysed the records of 30 of our forays over the last 3 years to see which fungi we’ve found most frequently. The following is a list of our top 10 fungi over the period. Where species have been found the same number of times, they are given equal ranking.

Name Ranking

Hypholoma fasciculare var. fasciculare 1=

Stereum hirsutum 1=

Laccaria laccata 3=

Trametes versicolor 3=

Xylaria hypoxylon 3=

Laccaria amethystina 6=

Mycena galericulata 6=

Schizopora paradoxa 6=

Daedaleopsis confragosa 9=

Russula ochroleuca 9=

A more detailed article on the results of the analysis will be included with the Foray List (see below).

Mike Harrison

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DATES FOR YOUR DIARIES

Spring Foray

There will be a Spring Foray this year at 10.00 a.m. on Sunday 19th April at St Neots School, Lower Common, Eversley (SU767618) where we had a successful foray in October 2014. Leader: Mike Waterman : 01252 874899.

Joint Foray with Oxfordshire

Professor Richard Fortey will lead a Joint Foray with the Fungus Survey of Oxfordshire at 2.00 p.m. on October 31st at Nettlebed. Further details will follow.

Joint Forays with Hampshire

There will be 2 Joint Forays with Hampshire Fungus Recording Group this year. The first will be at 10.00 on Saturday 12th September at Basing Forest. This is an area of mixed woodland just north of Basingstoke, with no fungus records at all until last November, when Mike Waterman and I did a brief preliminary survey and found more than 60 species.

The second foray is at 10.00 on Sunday 29th November at Herbert Plantation and Sandham Memorial Chapel, where we last forayed in 2009.

Further details of the Joint Forays with HFRG will be included in the list of TVFG Forays for 2015 which will follow later in the year.

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TVFG BALANCE SHEET FOR 2014

Cash at Bank on 2/1/14 £620.49 Cash at Bank on 31/12/14 £552.49

Cash in hand (Gordon Crutchfield) on 2/1/14

£23.50 Cash in hand (Gordon Crutchfield) on 31/12/14

£27.49

Subs for 2014 £22.00 Team Leader’s Meeting (Mike Waterman)

£68.00

Newsletter and Foray Programme 2014 printing and distribution costs (Mike Harrison)

£12.70

Other Postage (Gordon Crutchfield) £5.31

£665.99 £665.99