Pholiota populnea This rare toadstool was growing on an Italian Poplar in Hainault
Forest.
Phleogena faginea has a strong, persistent smell of curry. It was growing on a birch
trunk in Birchanger Wood and looks very like a slime mould!
Otidea onotica or Hare's Ear. This cup fungus was a conspicuous sight in Birchanger
Wood.
Ramaria stricta was also conspicuous in Marks Hill Wood. This coral fungus is
common despite being labelled as a vulnerable Red Data book species in Roger
Phillip's book.
Coprinus lagopus is a common toadstool but David Williams found five specimens
growing on the wooden base inside a dormouse tube in Hitchcock's Meadows!
Regrettably there were no dormice.
Hygrocybe species were not very numerous this season. The weather produced an
excellent crop of woodland fungi but it appears to have been too wet for the waxcaps
which usually grow in unimproved grassland.
The most interesting discovery was a range often species in Mill Meadows making it
another site of regional importance. They were H. virginea var ochraceopallida, H.
coccinea, H. insipida, H. pratensis var pratensis, H. ceracea, H. psittacina var
psittacina, H. chlorophana, H. irrigata (=unguinosa), H. reidii and best of all H.
punicea. These were widely scattered and we could have missed the final species we
needed to make it a site of national importance! We will visit it again next year.
We visited four sites on our annual waxcap special this year.
Fryerning Churchyard only provided three species which were H. virginea var
virginea, H. insipida and H. chlorophana which is surprising considering that this
became our third site of national importance last year.
Chelmsford Cemetery produced a few individuals of seven species. They were H.
reidii, H. coccinea, H. psittacina var psittacina, H. insipida, H. virginea var
ochraceopallida, ff pratensis var pratensis, and II irrigata.
Little Leighs Churchyard produced twelve species but very few of each. They were H.
pratensis var pratensis, H. conica var conica, H. irrigata, H. virginea var virginea,
H. reidii, H. fornicata, H. colemanniana, H. coccinea, H. persistens var persistens,
H. psittacina var psittacina, H. insipida, and H. chlorophana. I had already found H.
calyptriformis on an earlier visit. This maintains its record as the best site of national
importance in the county.
Danbury Churchyard contained three species which were H. irrigata, H. virginea var
virginea and H. ceracea.
One species, ff. insipida was found in more woodland situations in Birchanger Wood
and Marks Hill Wood as was H. virginea var virginea in the Phyllis Currie Reserve.
The grasslands in South Weald Park were home to a surprisingly large number of H.
conica var conica, H. insipida and H. coccinea individuals.
This season was wetter than in the last few years and the species of fungi found in the
woodland habitats were very numerous although the opposite effect was evident in the
grasslands of our county.
20 Essex Field Club Newsletter No. 52, January 2007