layers of tubes. Beneath an ash tree was evidence of the presence of another bracket in
the form of dead, jet-black fruiting bodies on the ground. Sure enough on looking up
more dead Shaggy Brackets were seen in situ. This species was Inonotus hispidus.
Some colourful fungi were conspicuous on wood, including Ascocoryne sarcoides or
the Purple Jellytot, which is an ascomycete; the Silverleaf or Chondrostereum purpureum
and the orange Wrinkled Crust or Phlebia radiata. The Bleeding Broadleaf Crust or
Stereum rugosum produces a red liquid when scraped with a finger nail, unlike the
common Hairy Crust or Stereum hirsutum. Two orange, gelatinous species were found
namely Calocera cornea or Yellow Buckshorn which is not branched, and the branched
Yellow Stagshorn or Calocera viscosa.
The most impressive toadstool was Pholiota alnicola or Alder Scalycap. This had a
yellow, greasy cap with a few brown specks on the surface and it too was growing on a
dead tree. Small Bonnet-caps were quite common; Mycena inclinata or Clustered Bonnet
with the stalks fused at the base which were light at the apex and darker at the base;
Mycena galericulata or Common Bonnet with cross-veining between the gills; Mycena
filopes with a strong smell of iodoform, (also found in other species of Bonnet-cap but
which differ in microscopic characters.) and Mycena vitilis or Snapping Bonnet whose
stalk snaps audibly when twisted. (This characteristic is apparently shared with Mycena
polygramma or Grooved Bonnet which has longitudinal ridges on its stalk and more
than 23 gills reaching the stalk.)
Grassland species were rarely found. Psathyrella microrhiza or Rootlet Fragicap was
growing amongst grass next to the car-park. Very few species of Fragicap can be
identified without a microscope. Some fruiting bodies of the Grey Puffball or Bovista
plumbea were also located in grassland.
Forty two species of fungus were identified by Tony Boniface, Shirley Watson and
Mary Smith.
Species List
Rigidoporus ulmarius; Pholiota alnicola; Bovista plumbea; Mycena inclinata;
Daedaleopsis confragosa; Cylindrobasidium evolvens; Auricularia auricula-judae;
Auricularia mesenterica; Ganoderma lucidum; Ganoderma resinaceum; Ganoderma
adspersum; Chondrostereum purpureum; Bjerkandera adusta; Polyporus
squamosus; Paxillus involutus; Inonotus hispidus; Daldinia concentrica; Armillaria
mellea agg; Mycena galericulata; Stereum rugosum; Stereum hirsutum; Mycena
filopes; Psathyrella microrhiza; Hypoxylon multiforme; Marasmius rotula; Xylaria
hypoxylon: Rhytisma acerinum; Phlebia radiata; Nectria cinnabarina; Vuilleminia
comedens; Ascocoryne sarcoides; Calocera viscosa; Calocera cornea; Abortiporus
biennis; Chlorociboria aeruginascens; Crepidotus variabilis; Hypoxylon fragiforme;
Meruliopsis corium; Mycena vitilis; Polyporus brumalis; Trametes versicolor;
Trametes gibbosa.
Essex Field Club Newsletter No. 43, January 2004
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