The Craven Branch of the Mid Yorkshire Fungus Group meets on the first Wednesday of the month, and is usually let by Archie McAdam and Ron Golightly
Here we are, setting forth on Wed 7 August.
No time to stop at the greenhouses and cafe.
(Note the Mid Yorkshire Fungus Group is affiliated to the YNU Also Craven Conservation Group members are welcome to attend a meeting of MYFG (and then may be join the MYFG if they want to come to more)
Actually we soon found fungi under our feet on the lawn:-
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| Agrocybe pediades (Common Fieldcap) |
Archie explained a useful tip to help sort some of the little brown jobs - it is important to know whether you can pick of the "skin" off a cap with a pin, or whether the surface just breaks up into chunks.
this videoed fungus was a Psathyrella -
There are pretty pictures in this blog.
What you can't hear is the noise of a very loud "reverse vacuum cleaner": a man was blowing leaves /grass cuttings/ to keep the paths safe.
We progressed down hill, out of earshot of him but into earshot of some large machinery "Bang, Bang, Bang!" with adjacent huge yellow pipes lying on the grass.
"Excuse me, we are looking for fungi." I politely said to the workmen. "What are you doing?"
"We are replacing the gas pipes, all the way up this side of the land," he said. "The old ones are leaking gas."
They were right about the leaking gas. We soon walked out of earshot of the workman - but not out of scent of the gas all the way up the hillside.
We all survived.
What we do for science!
Back to fungi:
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| Holding up some Oak Mazegill-with the felled oak tree in the background on which it had been growing |
It was only August 7th, so the fungi were not profuse. But
Archie seems capable of finding, and mostly naming fungi on nearly every twig! Those he could not name he took home.
See the black pimples on the black backgound on this thin branch
They are Eutypa lata.
Ascomycota; Sordariomycetes; Xylariales; Diatrypaceae; Eutypa;
And see the tiny pink dot on the branch (top right, slightly out of focus.) That turned out to be a Nectria episphaeria - which grows on effete ascomycetes )
I found a larger fungus, with a deep yellow slightly slimy cap. It seemed rather slug eaten - but Archie was interested - A Russula - Its gills and spores had a much stronger colour than white, .. some version of pale pink or beige..
Archie had a multi-access or synoptic key for identifying Russulas for Kibby's book.
Later determined (after Archie had had a discussion on Facebook with people in NWFG, and with microscope work) as Russula acetolens
This has a slimy cap.
Here is a yellow jelly fungus: Tremella mesenterica
I pulled a piece of bark off the log further along on the above log and underneath were some tine white dots, that with a hand lens looked a little like cup fungi but had hairs round the margin. Here they are next to a 1mm scale (picture (C) Archie Macadam)
Archie took them home and worked out they are not Ascomycetes (cup fungi) they are actually a Basidiomycete called
Lachnella villosa
I wandered into the woods and found this small but prolific fungus - which I have seen before but not named. Now I have learned its name: It was growing on a variety of dead twigs including brambles
Marasmiellus ramealis - "Twig Parachute" there is a good description here
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| Marasmiellus ramealis - "Twig Parachute" |
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| Marasmiellus ramealis - "Twig Parachute" |
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| Marasmiellus ramealis - "Twig Parachute" |
We made use of the picnic tables to spread out our finds.
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| An earthball cut open. These are NOT edible |
Schizophyllum:-
The gills are split so they have two edges - see the closer photos below.
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| A Marasmius with "threads like Honey fungus" |
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| Boletus (now Neoboletus) luridiformis Scarletina Bolete |
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| Yet another photo of the same table - but with the museum in the background. |
After we had given our thanks to Archie and people had departed I went into the museum to buy a small present for a friend who I would be gatecrashing for coffee in a little while - I found some "Cliff Castle Biscuits".
"Oh, but we have fungi in the museum" said the man at the till, and directed me to the natural history section.
They do indeed.
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| Impressive puff ball in the centre |
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| What a nice display cabinet. |
.. Whilst at the museum I saw examples of the prehistoric cup markings on rock that were mentioned in the "Bradford Faith Trail" that I attended the same week and may write about... Maybe 4000 years old. I am sure the people enjoyed finding fungi 4000 years ago too.
Finally on the way home to Settle at "Hellifeld Flashes" I stopped at the Lake to see if there were any waders on it. Locals and passers by like to see the birds here.
..but could not see the lake..
Bit difficult to see as they are digging up the soil all around it.!!!
We have another MYGF fungus foray on the first Wednesday 4th September. This time it will be to near Austwick.
