Fan Thelephora terrestris. The last of these had been found by Steve Wilkinson a few
days earlier at nearby Writtle Park and I was to see it at a number of sites subsequent to
the foray, so condition this autumn obviously suited its needs. Inocybe is a genus that I
usually pretend not to see but Mary Smith fancied a challenge and managed to identify
the only species we found as Inocybe lanuginosa. Meanwhile, Tony took home a button-
like Ascomycetes that he keyed out as Rutstroemia echinophila, a species that grows on
the rotting husks of Sweet Chestnut. That left me with the Cortinarius, Great! Fortunately,
one of the two species, C.decipiens, is not uncommon in the area while the other proved
to be one of the more distinctive members of this difficult group, namely, Chemitrichus^
the blue-grey brown cap being flecked with white fleecy scales. There is a particularly
fine picture of it in Michael Jordan's 'Encyclopedia of Fungi of Great Britain & Europe7
(David & Charles 1995).
Tn addition to fungi we saw a few other items of interest one of which was a caterpillar
with a fluorescent green punk rocker haircut and a line of shaving brushes along its
back. It turned out to be the larva of a Pale Tussock Calliteara pudibunda. There was
also a heard of around 80 Fallow Deer Cervus dama does in the charge of a fine 7-
pointer stag. Over 200 of these animals have been shot in the area this autumn, as part of
a nationwide cull to reduce numbers by a third, and it is estimated that upwards of 1000
are present in the Writtle Forest area as a whole.
The full list of fungi found during the foray was as follows :
Amanita citrina var. alba
Amanita fulva
Amanita rubescens
Armillaria mellea
Calocera viscosa
Cantharellus tubaeformis
Clavulina cristatus
Clitocybe clavipes
Collybia driophila
Collybia erythopus
Collybia fusipes
Collybia maculata
Cortinarius decipiens
Cortinarius hemitrichus
Crepidotus variabilis
Daedelopsis confragosa
Ganoderma adspersum
Griffia frondosa
Gymnopilus junonious
Hypholoma fasciculare
Inocybe lanuginosa
Laccaria amethystina
Laccaria laccata
Lactarius fulvissimus
Lactarius plumbeus
(= turpis)
Lactarius quietus
Lactarius subumbonatus
(= cimicarius)
Lactarius tabidus
Leccinum roseofractum
Leccinum scabrum
Lycoperdon foetidum
Lycoperdon perlatum
Lyophyllum decastes
Mycena galericulata
Mycena galopus var. nigra
Mycena inclinata
Paxillus involutus
Phallus impudicus
Piptoporus betulinus
Pluteus cervinus
Psathyrella piluliformis
Russula atropurpurea
Russula betularum
Russula dens folia
Russula nigricans
Russula ochroleuca
Russula pseudointegra
Rutstroemia echinophila.
Scleroderma citrinum
Stereum hirsutum
Suillus grevillei
Thelephora terrestris
Trametes versicolor
Xerocomus badius
24
Essex Field Club Newsletter No. 46, January 2005