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| Lym Nats at Exbury © Juliet Bloss
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| Scarlet Caterpillarclub |
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| Developing Piggyback Rosegill |
On a fine late autumnal morning 23 members turned up at
Exbury for a fungi walk in the grounds of the estate. Linda Runnacles, a staff
member, and Juliet Bloss, the volunteer naturalist, were our escorts leading us
around wooded areas, herbaceous borders, lawns and shrubberies. Although the
fungi season was perhaps a little early this autumn, we still found and were
shown a great variety of species, some of which are listed below. Linda and
Duncan with their books along with Angela, Carol and Maureen were keen to identify as many species as they
could for the benefit of those of us who were less knowledgeable. Whilst fungi
live off hosts, two species stood out as being of special interest. Scarlet
Caterpillarclub lives on the buried pupa of butterflies and moths, whist
Piggyback Rosegill is found on decaying toadstools such as Clouded Funnel.
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| Stump Puffball |
We were looking downwards for much of the time so all
credit goes to Chris who spotted a couple of Hawfinches when they paused
briefly in a leafless tree before flying out of sight.
Our thanks to Linda and Juliet for making the walk such
a successful insight into the world of fungi – thank you ladies!
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| Parrot Waxcap |
Amongst the species noted were: Calvatia gigantea Giant Puffball, Clavaria fragilis White Spindles, Clavaria fumosa Smoky Spindles, Clavulinopsis
corniculata Meadow Coral, Clavulinopsis helvola Yellow Club, Clitocybe geotropa Trooping Funnel, Coprinopsis atramentaria Common Inkcap, Cordyceps militaris Scarlet Caterpillarclub,
Helvella crispa White Saddle, Helvella lacunosa Elfin Saddle, Hygrocybe coccinea Scarlet Waxcap, Hygrocybe psittacina Parrot Waxcap, Hygrocybe punicea Crimson Waxcap, Hygrocybe russocoriacea Cedarwood Waxcap, Hygrocybe virginea Snowy Waxcap, Lepista nuda Wood Blewit, Lycoperdon pyriforme Stump Puffball, Peziza badia Bay Cup, Scleroderma citrinum Collared Earthstar, Tricholoma
sulphureum Sulphur Knight, Volvariella surrecta Piggyback Rosegill and possibly Trichoglossum hirsutum Hairy Earthtongue. RC
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| Juliet points out another interesting species |
Other photos © Richard Coomber
