A few yards away was the most interesting find, a large collection of Amanita
echinocephala. This rather rare, completely white species, has numerous sharp warts on
the cap and around the stem base, while the gills have a very faint greenish hue and there
is often a rather strange, musty odour present. It too is a species of open woodlands on
chalk downlands and one can usually see it around the Box Hill area in Surrey; certainly
it was the last thing 1 expected to see in an Essex churchyard.
So in one small area there were four rare mushrooms, two of which were new records,
and all preferring alkaline conditions. Is there calcareous soil coming to the surface here,
or is there some leaching into the soil of minerals from the tombstones? This is an
interesting subject for someone to follow up.
New Species recorded in Epping Forest 1991-1994
Boletus moravicus
Clitocybe subalutacea
Clitocybe subspadicea
Collybia impudica
Conocybe magnicapitata
Conocybe mesospora
Conocybe subovalis
Coprinus hiascens
Coprinus leiocephalus
Cortinarius magentifolius
Cortinarius rigidus ss. K. & R.
Cortinarius nemorensis
Cortinarius paleiferus
Cortinarius uraceus
Galerina heterocystis
Hebeloma pallidoluctuosum
Hebeloma gigasperma
Hebeloma tomentosum
Hebeloma vaccinum
Hygrocybe discoxanthus
Inocybe hirtella var. bispora
Inocybe subcarpta
Lactarius fulvissimus
Lactarius subsericeus (= ichoratus ?)
Marasmius recubens
Melanoleuca brevipes ss. Lange
Melanoleuca adstringens
Mycena oortiana
Mycena megaspora
Mycena rosea
Mycena uracea
Pluteus luteovirens
Psathyrella canoceps
Psilocybe crobula
Ripartites metrodii
Russula carminipes
Russula cuprea *'
Russula curtipes
Russula elaeodes
Russula graveolens
Russula melliolens
Russula melzeri ?, Lord's Bushes,
29-ix.92, differs in longer, narrower
warts and longer, narrower cystidia.
Russula olivaceoviolascens (=laccata ?)*2
Russula pelargonia
Russula puellula
Russula purpurata
Russula rubrocarminia
Simocybe centunculus
Tubaria conspersa
Notes:
1. The specimen of Russula capreae was completely green in colour and may represent
R. urens of European literature if that species is truly different (which has been debated).
2. Although placed in synonymy by some authors, in my opinion - having collected both in the
forest at different times and locations - these two taxa are distinct.
R. laccata is a uniform purple-red and intensely glossy-lacquered in texture.
R. olivaceoviolascens is, as the name suggests, much more mixed in colour with greens, violet,
purple and even black being present in the glossy cap cuticle.
Species recorded in Greenstead Green Churchyard 1994
Amanita echinocephala (new record)
Boletus regius (new record)
Boletus moravicus (2nd record for Essex)
Boletus queletii (2nd record for Essex)
Geoffrey Kibby