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Collecting throughout the year
139
COLLECTING THROUGHOUT THE YEAR A W LEGG
36 Carleton Drive, Darlington, Co Durham DL3 9QP
If you are an old hand at collecting fungi in all seasons and have turned to this article in the hope of learning something new, I am afraid you will be probably disappointed. If, on the other hand, your initial reaction was: 'Oh yes, we've tried that game and it isn't worth the effort', then read on. There are, of course, many discouragements to the would-be all-year collector. Hot dry summers when ground vegetation is at its most rank and impenetrable are likely to tempt you to less strenuous and sweaty pursuits. The fungi will have either shrivelled up completely or sensibly deferred their appearance until later in the year, won't they? In the long cold winter months you are likely either to half-drown in a quagmire or risk breaking an ankle slithering over rock-hard frosted ruts. Fleshy fungi found growing late in the year are notoriously difficult to identify - especially those infuriating grey-brown Clitocybe species. Small wonder that the main collecting season is of short duration and that spring forays are few and far between. Yet this is surely only part of the picture. Our British fungus flora may be 'impoverished' but our much maligned climate does have advantages for the field mycologist. Certainly, long hot dry spells in summer are as much the exception as weeks of unremitting frost and snow in winter. A factor to bear constantly in mind is that fungi, more than any other complex organisms, are disposed to take advantage of favourable conditions at short notice. A rapid check on the ca 550 'discomycetes' recorded dur-
ing the Warwickshire survey revealed the surprising percentages for the low season months: January
February
March
April
23
22
24
29
July
August
33
27
November December 33
24
Other advantages of low-season foraying are that the apparent scarcity of fungi concentrates the mind wonderfully and there is little danger of over-collecting. It is worthwhile also to remember that the solitary collecting trip or family expedition has its points. The advantages of the organised residential foray are obvious. Its big disadvantage is that it is bound to timetables and venues and thus at the mercy of the weather. The individual or informal trip can be both planned and opportunistic with a number of strategies worked out in advance awaiting only the right weather conditions for specific sites at particular times of the year. With all this in mind and having had a successful collecting season up to November 1986, I set myself a challenge which you may find entertaining to try out on yourself. To many my target may seem an easy one. It was simply to record at least one fungus new to me in every calendar year for a period of 12 consecutive months. I excluded sight of other people's collections but allowed myself expert confirmation or determination when necessary and possible. This article represents an account of my attempts to meet my self-imposed quota.
140
A considerable degree of success with bonfire-sites and sawdust heaps earlier in 1986 led me to further exploration in December of that year. These small areas are worth looking at out of season because, as with manure-heaps and middens, the age and condition of the site can often be at least as important as the time of year. The morning of 6 December broke blue and bright and a short outing in the woods near Barnard Castle led to the discovery of a beautiful Stropharia aurantiaca, rigid with frost but otherwise perfect, growing on a year-old sawdust heap. January 1987 was characterized by snow and very severe frosts but this did not worry me as I had made my record early. The local cemetery produces many of those Clitocybe species mentioned above and, cheered by having recently pinned down C. obsoleta there, I looked again on 2 January. A puzzling collection was kindly identified by Mr P D Orton as C. quercina Pearson & Hora (which he regards as conspecific with C. fritilliformis ss Rieken). Now came the hardest part. I knew I would have to turn my attention more to microscopic species about which I felt much less confident. Those of you who feel the same will find a systematic perusal of the inexpensive 'A Fungus flora of Warwickshire' (Clark, 1980) is well worthwhile. Much can be learned from its index of hosts and substrata especially if this is used in conjunction with the data, under each entry in the main text, on months of fruiting. I had also armed myself with the invaluable Microfungi on Land Plants (Ellis & Ellis, 1985), which opens the door not only to the identification of
countless small ascomycetes but also to the totally mysterious world of rusts, smuts, hyphomycetes and others. The weather in early February allowed for a trip to a local nature reserve which provided me with fine specimens of the cup fungus, Trichophaea hemisphaerioides from a bonfire-site but I had already found that for the first time in November. An examination of lopped ivy on oak on 8 February revealed N. sinopica, the more frequently seen of two winter species of Nectria on Hedera, and new to me. March afforded few opportunities for collecting but I happened to reread an article by Clark (1984) which led me to a close examination of bramble stems whilst walking by the River Tees on Saturday 14 March. With the help of Ellis & Ellis (1985), I was able to identify Clypeosphaeria notarsii which turned out to be my only 'new' find that month. I made the mistake of thinking that the worst was now over but April was unusually hot and the last thing I wanted was a drought before there was enough vegetation to retain moist conditions at ground level. I had to wait until the 25th before satisfying my criteria with a collection of the minute beaked ascomycete Endoxyla cirrhosa (= Ceratostomella ampullasca) from rotten wood. The same trip produced Rosellinia mammiformis which I was surprised to discover I had not previously recorded, and a large group of Sclerotinia tuberosa pushing up from anemone rhizomes through a sawdust patch and making themselves much more conspicuous than usual. May, as expected, was much more straightforward and I recorded a number of 'discomycetes' new to
141
me. The most gratifying collection though was of the small, sessile 'agaric', Leptoglossum lobatum. A trip to the north-western escarpment ofthe North York Moors on the 16th gave the opportunity to search boggy areas of moorland. The discovery of this infrequently-collected fungus, on living mosses in exactly the sort of wet habitat described for it, gave me particular pleasure. The second 'danger period' of the year now approached and I must have been one of the few people looking forward to a wet summer. As it turned out, the gods were especially kind to me. June produced Agrocybe semiorbicularis, no doubt seen before but not identified, on the back lawn of the house I had recently moved into. That same month I spied a group of agarics under Betula from my workroom window at the college where I teach; these turned out to be the uncommon Tricholoma inocybeoides. Also in June the cemetery mentioned earlier, known to be very good for Agaricus, produced A. subfloccosus. The 'high' season can be rapidly covered. My most interesting find in July was the seldom-collected Cudoniella tenuispora, a relative of the familiar C. clavus, adapted to drier conditions. This was on damaged roots in an immature spruce plantation - the kind of site often ignored as uninteresting. A holiday in the Scottish Highlands in August produced 25 identified 'new' species, including Camarophyllus subviolaceus and an orange Pholiota on spruce logs, traced to P. flammuloides described in Moser (1978). September was notable for 'new' Inocybe species, yet I give pride of place to Scutellinia subhirtella. It is always worthwhile to examine 'eyelash' fungi microscopically as there are several species indistinguishable from S. scutellata,
even with a field-lens. In October, I had to look no further than the college tennis court for Hygrocybe reai, with its distinctive spores. Even in large towns it is amazing what can be found on the smallest, artificially 'grazed area'. A lunchtime stroll in a small churchyard produced Volvariella taylori. I could not yet be complacent, remembering that the 1985 season had come to an abrupt conclusion at the end of October. A muddy, woodland walk in Richmond, Yorkshire on 14 November laid my fears to rest. Leptoglossum muscigenum was found on moss-covered elm logs, the small yellow-green patches of Fusidium aeruginosum were discovered on newly fallen oak-leaves exactly as described by Ellis & Ellis (1985), and a small Tephrocybe species, agreeing in all respects with T. platypus was collected from the surface of new beech litter. So, almost without effort, my target was reached. I had, of course, been lucky with the weather but was elated to have completed my selfimposed task so easily. I cannot help wondering what I would have missed, had I not set myself a challenge. Why not give yourself a target to aim at too? Hitting it can bring a great deal of satisfaction. I would like to express my gratitude to the following experts who have patiently helped with the identification of many of the fungi mentioned: P DOrton, D N Pegler, D A Reid, B M Spooner and R Watling. REFERENCES
CLARK, M C, Ed. (1980). A Fungus Flora of
Warwickshire. London: British Mycological Society. CLARK, M C (1984). Recording Discomycetes in Worcestershire. Bulletin of the British Mycological Society 18, 121-125. ELUS, M B & ELLIS, J P (1985). Microfungi on Land Plants. London: Croom Helm. MOSER, M (1978). Keys to Agarics and Boleti. Translation, Edit. 4. London: R Phillips.
COLLECTING THROUGHOUT THE YEAR A W LEGG
36 Carleton Drive, Darlington, Co Durham DL3 9QP
If you are an old hand at collecting fungi in all seasons and have turned to this article in the hope of learning something new, I am afraid you will be probably disappointed. If, on the other hand, your initial reaction was: 'Oh yes, we've tried that game and it isn't worth the effort', then read on. There are, of course, many discouragements to the would-be all-year collector. Hot dry summers when ground vegetation is at its most rank and impenetrable are likely to tempt you to less strenuous and sweaty pursuits. The fungi will have either shrivelled up completely or sensibly deferred their appearance until later in the year, won't they? In the long cold winter months you are likely either to half-drown in a quagmire or risk breaking an ankle slithering over rock-hard frosted ruts. Fleshy fungi found growing late in the year are notoriously difficult to identify - especially those infuriating grey-brown Clitocybe species. Small wonder that the main collecting season is of short duration and that spring forays are few and far between. Yet this is surely only part of the picture. Our British fungus flora may be 'impoverished' but our much maligned climate does have advantages for the field mycologist. Certainly, long hot dry spells in summer are as much the exception as weeks of unremitting frost and snow in winter. A factor to bear constantly in mind is that fungi, more than any other complex organisms, are disposed to take advantage of favourable conditions at short notice. A rapid check on the ca 550 'discomycetes' recorded dur-
ing the Warwickshire survey revealed the surprising percentages for the low season months: January
February
March
April
23
22
24
29
July
August
33
27
November December 33
24
Other advantages of low-season foraying are that the apparent scarcity of fungi concentrates the mind wonderfully and there is little danger of over-collecting. It is worthwhile also to remember that the solitary collecting trip or family expedition has its points. The advantages of the organised residential foray are obvious. Its big disadvantage is that it is bound to timetables and venues and thus at the mercy of the weather. The individual or informal trip can be both planned and opportunistic with a number of strategies worked out in advance awaiting only the right weather conditions for specific sites at particular times of the year. With all this in mind and having had a successful collecting season up to November 1986, I set myself a challenge which you may find entertaining to try out on yourself. To many my target may seem an easy one. It was simply to record at least one fungus new to me in every calendar year for a period of 12 consecutive months. I excluded sight of other people's collections but allowed myself expert confirmation or determination when necessary and possible. This article represents an account of my attempts to meet my self-imposed quota.
140
A considerable degree of success with bonfire-sites and sawdust heaps earlier in 1986 led me to further exploration in December of that year. These small areas are worth looking at out of season because, as with manure-heaps and middens, the age and condition of the site can often be at least as important as the time of year. The morning of 6 December broke blue and bright and a short outing in the woods near Barnard Castle led to the discovery of a beautiful Stropharia aurantiaca, rigid with frost but otherwise perfect, growing on a year-old sawdust heap. January 1987 was characterized by snow and very severe frosts but this did not worry me as I had made my record early. The local cemetery produces many of those Clitocybe species mentioned above and, cheered by having recently pinned down C. obsoleta there, I looked again on 2 January. A puzzling collection was kindly identified by Mr P D Orton as C. quercina Pearson & Hora (which he regards as conspecific with C. fritilliformis ss Rieken). Now came the hardest part. I knew I would have to turn my attention more to microscopic species about which I felt much less confident. Those of you who feel the same will find a systematic perusal of the inexpensive 'A Fungus flora of Warwickshire' (Clark, 1980) is well worthwhile. Much can be learned from its index of hosts and substrata especially if this is used in conjunction with the data, under each entry in the main text, on months of fruiting. I had also armed myself with the invaluable Microfungi on Land Plants (Ellis & Ellis, 1985), which opens the door not only to the identification of
countless small ascomycetes but also to the totally mysterious world of rusts, smuts, hyphomycetes and others. The weather in early February allowed for a trip to a local nature reserve which provided me with fine specimens of the cup fungus, Trichophaea hemisphaerioides from a bonfire-site but I had already found that for the first time in November. An examination of lopped ivy on oak on 8 February revealed N. sinopica, the more frequently seen of two winter species of Nectria on Hedera, and new to me. March afforded few opportunities for collecting but I happened to reread an article by Clark (1984) which led me to a close examination of bramble stems whilst walking by the River Tees on Saturday 14 March. With the help of Ellis & Ellis (1985), I was able to identify Clypeosphaeria notarsii which turned out to be my only 'new' find that month. I made the mistake of thinking that the worst was now over but April was unusually hot and the last thing I wanted was a drought before there was enough vegetation to retain moist conditions at ground level. I had to wait until the 25th before satisfying my criteria with a collection of the minute beaked ascomycete Endoxyla cirrhosa (= Ceratostomella ampullasca) from rotten wood. The same trip produced Rosellinia mammiformis which I was surprised to discover I had not previously recorded, and a large group of Sclerotinia tuberosa pushing up from anemone rhizomes through a sawdust patch and making themselves much more conspicuous than usual. May, as expected, was much more straightforward and I recorded a number of 'discomycetes' new to
141
me. The most gratifying collection though was of the small, sessile 'agaric', Leptoglossum lobatum. A trip to the north-western escarpment ofthe North York Moors on the 16th gave the opportunity to search boggy areas of moorland. The discovery of this infrequently-collected fungus, on living mosses in exactly the sort of wet habitat described for it, gave me particular pleasure. The second 'danger period' of the year now approached and I must have been one of the few people looking forward to a wet summer. As it turned out, the gods were especially kind to me. June produced Agrocybe semiorbicularis, no doubt seen before but not identified, on the back lawn of the house I had recently moved into. That same month I spied a group of agarics under Betula from my workroom window at the college where I teach; these turned out to be the uncommon Tricholoma inocybeoides. Also in June the cemetery mentioned earlier, known to be very good for Agaricus, produced A. subfloccosus. The 'high' season can be rapidly covered. My most interesting find in July was the seldom-collected Cudoniella tenuispora, a relative of the familiar C. clavus, adapted to drier conditions. This was on damaged roots in an immature spruce plantation - the kind of site often ignored as uninteresting. A holiday in the Scottish Highlands in August produced 25 identified 'new' species, including Camarophyllus subviolaceus and an orange Pholiota on spruce logs, traced to P. flammuloides described in Moser (1978). September was notable for 'new' Inocybe species, yet I give pride of place to Scutellinia subhirtella. It is always worthwhile to examine 'eyelash' fungi microscopically as there are several species indistinguishable from S. scutellata,
even with a field-lens. In October, I had to look no further than the college tennis court for Hygrocybe reai, with its distinctive spores. Even in large towns it is amazing what can be found on the smallest, artificially 'grazed area'. A lunchtime stroll in a small churchyard produced Volvariella taylori. I could not yet be complacent, remembering that the 1985 season had come to an abrupt conclusion at the end of October. A muddy, woodland walk in Richmond, Yorkshire on 14 November laid my fears to rest. Leptoglossum muscigenum was found on moss-covered elm logs, the small yellow-green patches of Fusidium aeruginosum were discovered on newly fallen oak-leaves exactly as described by Ellis & Ellis (1985), and a small Tephrocybe species, agreeing in all respects with T. platypus was collected from the surface of new beech litter. So, almost without effort, my target was reached. I had, of course, been lucky with the weather but was elated to have completed my selfimposed task so easily. I cannot help wondering what I would have missed, had I not set myself a challenge. Why not give yourself a target to aim at too? Hitting it can bring a great deal of satisfaction. I would like to express my gratitude to the following experts who have patiently helped with the identification of many of the fungi mentioned: P DOrton, D N Pegler, D A Reid, B M Spooner and R Watling. REFERENCES
CLARK, M C, Ed. (1980). A Fungus Flora of
Warwickshire. London: British Mycological Society. CLARK, M C (1984). Recording Discomycetes in Worcestershire. Bulletin of the British Mycological Society 18, 121-125. ELUS, M B & ELLIS, J P (1985). Microfungi on Land Plants. London: Croom Helm. MOSER, M (1978). Keys to Agarics and Boleti. Translation, Edit. 4. London: R Phillips.