Fungi identification

[661-Pete]

There's even a small coral fungus for Tangled.

I think your 'coral fungus' is actually Yellow Stags-horn, Calocera viscosa, which is not a true coral fungus, instead it is one of the so-called 'jelly fungi' (and indisputably inedible of course!).

[Cugel]

There's even a small coral fungus for Tangled.

I think your 'coral fungus' is actually Yellow Stags-horn, Calocera viscosa, which is not a true coral fungus, instead it is one of the so-called 'jelly fungi' (and indisputably inedible of course!).

You may well be right. These are the insights and corrections one seeks.

I read recently that those who are familiar with the science relating to fungi estimate that there are something like 90% of fungal items as yet undiscovered or wrongly included in an extant classification niche. How one makes such an estimate I don't know ........

Cugel

[Cyril Haearn]

Right queer and interesting organisms
Please to post the Welsh names too

[Tangled Metal]

Aren't true coral fungi slightly branched at the ends? Plus the one I took was shiny on the sides. Or the flash certainly reflected well off the sides of the one I snapped.

[Cugel]

A lichen today - in super close-up.

I believe this to be Baeomyces roseus but correct me if I'm wrong. It was growing on soil and slate mix along the edge of a Fforest Brechfa logging track.

In the middle pic, the out-of-focus blur at the top of the pic is the ladywife's forefinger nail. Those pink mushrooms erupting from the grey-green lichen are teeny-weeny. The clever Olympus TG4 microscope mode manages to be just that.

Cugel

[peetee]

In the news today, a Welsh mushroom hunter.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-49687905

I think I know where that is. A couple of years ago we were on holiday in South Wales and did a popular walk in Brecon. We took some photos of what we found just off the trail and, as described, it was like a storybook enchanted scene. I love to see fungi but have no idea what is what.

[Cugel]

In the news today, a Welsh mushroom hunter.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-49687905

I think I know where that is. A couple of years ago we were on holiday in South Wales and did a popular walk in Brecon. We took some photos of what we found just off the trail and, as described, it was like a storybook enchanted scene. I love to see fungi but have no idea what is what.

Not 200 yards from them little pink lichen items was a patch of them penny buns but long past their best.

I've tasked the ladywife with spotting in the woods for fungi, employing a £12 set of 'noculars with which to peer from the logging tracks or other pathways. She spotted some enormous brown summicks in a distant glade, which turned out to be a dozen or thereabouts of those huge brown items but got to the semi-rotted stage of late development, with slug and worm-bite; and a rather slimy aspect.

It may have been ideal conditions for the penny buns this year as we've seen quite a few - but well past their best so not worth picking.

Here are a few more strange characters of Fforest Brechfa:

All stalk an' naa cap

About to get munched

Fungi startrekii

Fungi eats fungi

The fungi muncher

Cugel

[661-Pete]

Here are a few more strange characters of Fforest Brechfa:

This first one, which you have labelled Tricholoma vaccinum-1.jpg (incorrectly, I think) could well be a specimen of Battarrea phalloides as my best guess. This is a very rare fungus indeed in Britain, I have certainly never seen one. A pity you didn't get a picture of the underside of the 'cap' (it has no gills) nor of the base of the stem (it has a volva like A. phalloides). If I'm right, well spotted!

Despite its similar name to the Death Cap, it is not said to be poisonous, though indisputably inedible!

Incidentally, if I'm right, this is a protected species under the Wildlife & Countryside Act 1981, schedule 8 - so don't go picking 'em.

[Cugel]

Here are a few more strange characters of Fforest Brechfa:

This first one, which you have labelled Tricholoma vaccinum-1.jpg (incorrectly, I think) could well be a specimen of Battarrea phalloides as my best guess. This is a very rare fungus indeed in Britain, I have certainly never seen one. A pity you didn't get a picture of the underside of the 'cap' (it has no gills) nor of the base of the stem (it has a volva like A. phalloides). If I'm right, well spotted!

Despite its similar name to the Death Cap, it is not said to be poisonous, though indisputably inedible!

Incidentally, if I'm right, this is a protected species under the Wildlife & Countryside Act 1981, schedule 8 - so don't go picking 'em.

You may be right but the Battarrea description from your Wiki link says it's a species of desert or very dry places. Brechfa is far from a dry spot! There were two others nearby in a more mature condition. I think they're the same type but ..... ?

I don't pick any of the fungi I discover these days - although I may try some spore prints in future, perhaps only of the more common variety. At the moment various russulas are most common in Brechfa.

Cugel

[Cyril Haearn]

Perhaps you could put a ruler in the photos so we can see how big they are
How do they smell, should one be wary of smelling them?
Where do they grow, wet, shaded, sunny places, on dead trees?
Whatabout the Welsh names?

Hoping to provoke Cugel into making a long post

[Cugel]

Perhaps you could put a ruler in the photos so we can see how big they are
How do they smell, should one be wary of smelling them?
Where do they grow, wet, shaded, sunny places, on dead trees?
Whatabout the Welsh names?

Hoping to provoke Cugel into making a long post

I never make long posts, nor am I ever provoked.

Now, I must take issue with your remarks and explain that [3000 word bad-tempered post truncated in case a reader gets bored to death or even eye-ache - the forum tedium-monitor].

The traditional scale indicator is a small coin in the fungi photos, apparently. As to sniffing them - it can be difficult at my age to get the conk that low to the ground without accidently pushing it into the murk; or going faint when scrambling back up on to one's feet. It seems unlikely that the miasma of the mushroom could lead to any harm, though.

There is the school-toilet smell of the phallus impudicus (stinkhorn) that might cause a faint even without standing up too quick, mind. But who wants stinkhorn cacka on their nozzle? It would become tedious swatting off the consequent insistent cloud of flies. Also, a rozzer coming across a stinkhorn sniffer might become confused about the incident, believing it to be some sort of countryside sexual offense then arresting the innocent fungi-obsessive on a charge of unnatural conduct or even perversion.

Cugel

[PDQ Mobile]

Many years ago on a Continental fungus foray with experts I discovered the "pigeon's egg" and partly clear jelly filled stage of impudus!
On the expert advice that is was edible it was added to the mushroom pot pourri!

So I can lay claim to having partaken!
I found it unremarkable- surprisingly!

[cycleruk]

Posted a couple of these before on the forum:-

mush 2011b.jpg (28.48 KiB) Viewed 294 times

2011 - Discovered in a hedge but on closer inspection was attached to a dead tree.
About two feet across.

Some years later. 2017 - Same growth :-

Now as big as a bike wheel.
But not there this year.

[cycleruk]

On a grass verge:-

and underneath.

No idea if safe or not ?

[cycleruk]

Was on a Poplar tree in our garden :-