month, among them the beautiful Russula violeipes, in Box Wood, Mill Green, and up
to fifty Fly Agarics Amanita muscaria on the edge of nearby Mill Green Wood. A few
boleti were also found, including Xerocomus badius and Boletus erythopus, while thanks
to an article on Xerocomoid fungi in the July 2002 issue of Field Mycology I was able to
separate Xerocomus communis from the closely relate X. chrysenteron for the first time.
My best find at this time, though, was undoubtedly a specimen of Ganoderma lucidum
on a dead beech tree at Writtle Park - the fourth species of Ganoderma to adorn this old
tree since its demise a few years ago. Unfortunately, deer trod on it while the stipe was
still only a few inches tall and so it bears no comparison with a specimen found by Tony
Boniface in Hatfield Forest, which has a stipe of a foot or more - a most impressive
looking fungi
Alas, there then followed almost three months of unbroken sunshine, the temperature
soaring to a record 100oF in early August and baking the ground so hard that it would
have been easier to dig the back yard than the back garden! As mid-October and the
fungi foray to Mill Green approached I had to discourage several people who phoned
enquiring about it as a four hour walk in the Forest the previous weekend had produced
nothing but one sickly Fly Agaric and a few mouldy Common Earthballs Scleroderma
citrinum! Thus I was surprised, as I walked to Mill Green from the village on the afternoon
of 15th, to find several Fly Agarics, a dozen or more Leccinum scabrum and a couple of
Tricholoma fulvum growing under birches on a very dry bank on the edge of Mill Green
Wood. This was encouraging : so too, the arrival of Tony as it is good to have a second
- and more expert - opinion on forays to pass any awkward questions to! In the end, and
despite my discouraging noises over the phone, there were six of us on the foray and
perhaps because twelve eyes are better than two we found more species than I had dared
hope for. Even so the fare was meagre for the time of year. It included solitary specimens
of species such as False Death Cap Amanita citrina, Brown Roll-rim Paxillus involutus
and Common Earth Ball, that are normally present in hundreds, and others, such as
Honey Fungus Armillaria mellea, Sulphur Tuft Hypholoma fasciculare and Bonnet
Mycena Mycena galericulata that seem to fruit however dry the weather. I led the group
to The Mores, a marshy extension of Mill Green Common that penetrates deep into the
wood, but even here deer had been dust bathing in areas where normally they are up to
their hocks in mud! We did find a patch or two of almost damp soil and these produced
Lyophyllum decastes, Lactarius tabidus and Mycena filopes while a few of the numerous
rotting stumps in this area were adorned with Polyporus durus (= varius), Pluteus
salicinus and the curious bracket fungus, Phlebia (= Merulius) tremellosus, whose upper
surface appears to be covered in a sheep's fleece! Perhaps our best find was an innocuous
looking Mycena (aren't they all!), later identified by Tony as Mycena arcangeliana, an
inhabitant of stumps and branches of deciduous trees, which I had not found in the
Forest before.
During our walk we also saw large numbers of Fallow Deer Cervus dama and a single
Muntjac Muntiacus reevesi while those who wished came back laden with chestnuts;
Castanea sativa - if not the fungi - benefiting from the long hot summer. Subsequent to
the foray, sporadic heavy rain in early November produced a late flurry of species,
principally Collybia, Clitocybe and Mycena. These included the familiar Butter Cap
Essex Field Club Newsletter No. 44, May 2004
19