Category: Fungi

Out of the Woods

birch bracket
Birch Polypore or Razorstrop Fungus, Piptoporus betulinus, on silver birch at the top end of Newmillerdam.

Last month’s lockdown and the new Tier 3 restrictions staring today mean we can’t go far, so we’ve been looking for walks closer to home: yesterday a woodland walk at the top end of Coxley valley, today a circuit of the lake at Newmillerdam.

goosanders

There are four female goosanders at the sleepy lagoon at the top end of the lake and hundreds of black-headed gulls (none with ‘black’ heads at this time of year) hanging around in the willowy backwaters of the western shore. All the regulars are here – mallards, tufted duck, coot, moorhen, heron, cormorant and great-crested grebe – but conspicuously absent are what are normally the noisiest birds on the lake, the Canada geese. I suspect that they’re still in the area, perhaps heading for larger lakes such as Anglers.

Black-headed gulls
Black-headed gulls

About fifteen years ago, one of Newmillerdam’s trees left me scarred for life: as I stooped under the leafy branch of a sycamore, I gouged my scalp on the sharp end of a trimmed back branch. This morning I should have been at Pinderfields having the small wart that has grown over the wound removed, but the Dermatology Department rang me at breakfast-time to say that because of a positive test for Covid at the hospital, my minor operation has been postponed.

We’re not out of the woods yet.

Velvet Shank

velvet shank

Another iPhone drawing, this is velvet shank fungus growing on an old stump at Nostell last January. The effect of Adobe Fresco’s natural inker in various opaque colours reminds me of oil pastels, which I briefly experimented with in my student day. I like the out-of-control energy of the swirling line, which was literally out-of-control as I struggled again with my Wacom Bamboo stylus slipping about on the protective glass screen of the phone.

It’s so different to my usual nature diary sketches for The Dalesman but I’ll drop it into the layout and I think that it might work in the context of the article, I’m not producing a field guide and this article is about the way life seems to be waiting to burst forth once we get to January.

Common Puffball

puffball

Common Puffball, Lycoperdon perlatum, is edible when young, as in the one above, growing on grassland near trees on the south bank of Skelton Lake. The pyramidal warts fall away as the puffball changes colour from white to ochre brown, leaving a faint net-like pattern.

These two were growing within a few feet of each other with a third nearby.

Woodland Mushroom

woodland mushroom

The fibrous scales on this small mushroom resemble those of the Blushing Wood Mushroom, Agaricus silvaticus, a common species that some writers say is good to eat, but there are similar-looking species that aren’t, so I won’t be giving it a try.

Velvet Shank

velvet shank, Flammulina velutipes

I was surprised to see so much fungus growing on an old tree stump near the church at Nostell but this is Velvet Shank, Flammulina velutipes, which thrives during the winter and can survive being frozen solid. The stem becomes black and velvety with age and the cap becomes slimy when damp.

It’s grown commercially in a small, white, elongated form as Enoki, also known as Enokitake, for use in soups and salads.

You could eat Velvet Shank, as there’s not much else available at this time of year, although I won’t be trying it as there’s a similar species called Funeral Bell which is deadly poisonous (but which doesn’t survive into the winter).

Lawyer’s Wig

shaggy ink cap
inkcaps

‘Best in batter with garlic and parsley’, suggests Marcel Bon, but, despite a name that you might associate with Michelin stars, Bon (1925-2014) was a mycologist not a chef. In The Mushrooms and Toadstools of Britain and Europe, he tells us that Lawyer’s Wig, also known as Shaggy Ink Cap, Coprinus comatus, is best when young and white, before the cap starts to turn inky, but that it is rather watery, hence his serving suggestion.

ink cap

Bon warns that the closely related Common Ink Cap is not recommended for eating because it causes ‘flushing in the face, sweating and palpitation if eaten with alcohol’. Small wonder then that the drug Antabuse, used for treating alcoholics, is derived from it.

This single specimen was growing beneath bushes by the path near the car park at Newmillerdam Country Park but lawyer’s wig is also found in pastures, on bare ground in rubbish dumps and on lawns.

Hawthorn Rust Fungus

As I was trimming the hawthorn at the end of the garden this morning, I found this gall on a stem growing in the top of the hedge. I think that it’s a species of rust fungus, so the tufts are the spore-producing bodies.

gall

It looks as if the stem might have been bent over and damaged along one side, allowing the fungus to penetrate the periderm: the corky outer layer of the stem.

Ear Fungus

ear fungus

I didn’t spot this ear fungus growing on an elder stump as I walked through the Corsican Pine plantation at Newmillerdam last week. It looks so fresh that I suspect it must have grown as a result of all the rain we’ve had over the past week.

Common Earthball

Earthball

Common Earthball, Scleroderma citrinum, has ‘a characteristic smell of old rubber’ according to Wildlife of Britain, the Definitive Visual Guide or strong odour ‘of gas or acetylene’ (Encyclopedia of Fungi, Michael Jordan). As I’ve mentioned before, this didn’t stop me from slicing the young ones, with firm white flesh, and frying them in a bit of butter when I was trying to survive on a very slender travelling scholarship on a student field trip to Iceland. To me, they tasted of mushroom, but I don’t recommend that you try them, as they’re variously described as inedible or even poisonous.

earthballThese were growing by the path in deciduous woodland at the top end of the Pleasure Grounds at Nostell Priory Park.

Link

National Trust, Nostell

Bracket Fungus

hoof fungs

I’m not sure whether this is the hoof fungus, Fomes fomentarius, or a Ganoderma bracket fungus. It was growing on a softwood deciduous tree, probably birch, at Dubbs Moss Cumbria Wildlife Trust nature reserve, southwest of Cockermouth.

Hoof fungus, also known as tinder fungus, was once considered to be mainly confined to the Scottish Highlands but it is spreading south.

iPad drawing using Clip Studio Paint.