Fungus Forays

Fungus Foray 2024

Our annual fungus foray  took place on Tuesday 29th October 2024, 10am to 12 noon. A large group of fungi hunters gathered and  Dr Tony Leech expertly led us around our grounds. As usual we didn't walk too far as a good selection of interesting fungi were soon found.

Look back here for the list soon and check out our Facebook and Instagram feeds for photographs of the highlights.

Thank you again Tony

Fungus Foray 24 October 2022 with Dr Tony Leech

Click on the link below to open an Excel spreadsheet of the results of the October 2022 foray with Dr Tony Leech.

Natural Surroundings 24 October 2022

Fungus Foray 27 October 2021 with Dr Tony Leech

Species recorded:

– Stinkhorn ‘egg’
– Sulphur Tuft
– Common Bonnet
– Southern Bracket
– Beech Woodwart
– Brown Stump Brittlestem
– Candle-snuff
– Glistening Inkcap
– Lilac Bonnet
– Dead Man’s Fingers
– Deer Shield
– Silver Leaf Fungus
– Coral Spot
– Redlead Roundhead
– Red-edge Brittlestem
– Conical Brittlestem
– King Alfred’s Cakes/Cramp Balls
– Turkeytail
– Smoky Bracket?
– Common Stump Brittlestem
– Earthstar
– Jelly Ear
– Dryad’s Saddle
– Ivory or Frosty Funnel?
– Common Bird’s Nest
– Cannon Ball Fungus
– Poison Cup Fungus
– Ringed Conecap

Many thanks to Patrician Alexander for compiling the list.

Tony made the following notes:

Peziza brunneoatra In a plant pot. This is the only cup fungus that ‘fits’ microscopically but (as the name suggests) it should be darker. It does appear, however, that young specimens are paler. It has only been recorded in Britain about six times and never from Norfolk.

Entoloma undatum The brittle deformed fungus next to wooden edges of the beds. Not rare but quite uncommon although well-recorded in Norfolk.

Sphaerobolus stellatus In pot. Quite widely recorded (mostly on woodchips) by Reg and Lil Evans but the first time I had seen it in Norfolk.

Pholiotina (Conocybe) filiaris The ringed conecap in a pot. A different species to the one you found in 2011 but very similar – I might have got it wrong then but it is not uncommon to have related species from the same place.

The white ‘mould’ on the Xylaria longipes (and probably also on X. polymorpha Dead Man’s Fingers, was not what I expected; the spores were quite different and distinctive. I can’t pin it down precisely but it seems to be a Monoacrosporium sp. One is recorded as parasitising fungi (but not Xylaria). These fungi are (mostly) asexxual forms (anamorphs) of Orbilia spp, a genus of small cup fungi and most, at least, are nematophagous – they snare, kill and consume nematodes.