Hazel Gloves and Golden Hair

Winter is still a good time for looking for Lichens and Fungi and especially a fungi which mainly lives in trees. The lack of foliage makes the task of seeing it so much easier, or should that be marginally less difficult! Hazel Gloves is quite a rare fungus which is virtually confined to the west coast of Britain, especially Scotland's Atlantic hazel forests. It also has a stranglehold in North Devon, which is where we went to look for it a couple of weeks before Christmas. It is thought to be parasitic on a fungus called Glue Crust commonly seen sticking branches together. If it was on every patch of Glue Crust it would be easy to see but it is only very occasional even in its favoured areas. We were given a location to search for it at a DWT reserve by a member of the Devon Fungus Group and we found it quite easily there, although saying that I walked straight past it at first! We also searched along a stretch of the Bude Canal near Virworthy and recorded another specimen there.

Glue Crust - Hymenochaete corrugata.

Hazel Gloves - Hypocreopsis rhododendri

This was a fair way up a tree along the Bude Canal (I could only just get my camera to it)

and with leaves on the trees it would have been almost impossible to spot.

The fungus is called Hazel Gloves because the tan coloured fruiting bodies are meant to look like

gloves but as you can see they don't always. These certainly didn't. However, just look at these ones from the DWT reserve.

This one even has finger nails!

Between Christmas and New Year we took a trip down to Cornwall to look for Golden Hair Lichen at The Lizard. Whilst in Cornwall it would have been rude not to look in on the Eastern Black Redstart at Mousehole which we saw but only a couple of brief glimpses as it was being rather elusive for a change. I'm not having the best of luck with birds recently. Unfortunately the views were too brief to get even a record shot. Nice to have seen it though. The Golden Hair Lichen was a bit easier to photograph. It's a lichen I've always wanted to see and I honestly can't say that about many of them!

Golden Hair Lichen - Teloschistes flavicans

Earthstars and Stiltballs

I have stacks of Fungi photos, including some from last year. Here's a selection of Earthstars and a Stiltball. Before last September I hadn't seen any earthstars although I'd always hoped to. I've now seen five different species, some common (though not that common or I'd have seen them before ) and some rare.

Collared Earthstar - Geastrum Triplex

One of the largest and most common Earthstars named for the fleshy collar that forms between the  rays and the spore sac, although sometimes this isn't present as in the last two photos here.

These two specimens were both found under conifers at Stourhead in Wiltshire.

Striated Earthstar - Geastrum Striatum

These have a pleated 'beak' and a distinctive collar around the base of the pore sac.

These specimens were all seen under conifers in a Hampshire Cemetery 

Although these look noticeably different to the previous Earthstars in colouration I think they are also Striated Earthstars. They are very fresh but appear to have the correct collar and beak.

If anyone knows or suspects they are something else please feel free to correct me. 

These were again under conifers in a Hampshire Cemetery albeit a different one.

Tiny Earthstar - Geastrum marginatum

We found these on Burnham Overy Dunes in Norfolk last September whilst searching for Jersey Cudweed. A rare and as its name suggests, tiny earthstar. The one in the photo was only about 2cm across. My first ever earthstar sighting and what a good one!

Arched or Acrobatic Earthstar - Geastrum fornicatum

Another quite large earthstar which is pretty spectacular as it raises itself up on legs joined to the points of a cup beneath. It can be quite long lasting and these particular specimens had been around for several weeks before I photographed them. You can tell that they are old as there is algae growing on the inside of the cup in the first photo. They were underneath beech and sycamore at the base of a roadside bank near Buckfastleigh, Devon.

Pepperpot Earthstar - Myriostoma coliforme

This rare and unusual earthstar is only found in the Channel Islands and at two sites in Suffolk. We were lucky enough to find it in Suffolk whilst looking for the rare and even more unusual Sandy Stiltball fungus. The Pepperpot is quite a large Earthstar with a very distinctive multi-pored spore sac, which looks a bit like, yes, you've guessed it. A Pepperpot.

Sandy Stiltball - Battarrea phalloides 

A very striking species which can grow up to a foot high. It has its spore mass on the outside of a cap like structure at the top of a long scaly stalk, all of which grows from an underground 'egg'. It grows on dry sandy banks especially in Norfolk and Suffolk but is always rare. These were on a protected road verge in Norwich. 

Wart-biter

Back in August we visited Castle Hill in East Sussex hoping to see the Wart-biter Bush Cricket. A large and rare cricket which as its scientific name Decticus verrucivorus (biting verruca eater) suggests was once used to bite warts from the skin. It is only found in around five sites in the UK and Castle Hill is one of them. It was going to be really difficult to find as they hide in dense grass tussocks and the only way of seeing one is by first locating it by listening for its stridulations, a series of  rapid clicks that are supposed to sound a bit like a bicycle freewheeling downhill. When we finally heard one, the male making the sound was deep inside a tussock, we were able to just about see him but he wasn't exposed enough to get a decent photo. We walked around the reserve enjoying the wildflowers and butterflies and eventually we spotted another Wart-biter, this time a female which was much more out in the open. On looking closely we could see that she had just mated and had the spermataphore attached to her abdomen and was busy eating the 'food gift' part of this which is probably why she wasn't as wary as normal and stayed put for some photos. There was a lovely showing of the beautiful rare wildflower Round -headed Rampion and several Clouded Yellows including my first ever sighting of the helice form.

The Castle Hill reserve in East Sussex a superb example of the type of unimproved calcareous grassland that the crickets require.

The spermataphore is clearly visible on the end of the abdomen below the base of the ovipositor.

Wart-biter Bush-cricket - Decticus verrucivorus

Round-headed Rampion - Phyteuma orbiculare

 

Clouded Yellow - Colias croceus

 

The helice form of Clouded Yellow.

 Unfortunately it didn't stay put long enough for a better photo.

Maybe next year.

 

Decticus verrucivorus

Decticus verrucivorus

Decticus verrucivorusname suggests ( it tarnaslates to was once used to bite warts from