Shropshire Fungus Group Newsletter 2018 Rhytisma salicinum. First found in Shropshire in October 2018, at Snailbeach. This photo is of the second find a week or two later, in the same location CONTENTS Exidia recisa - Jo Weightman First records for the county – Jo Weightman Wilding – an extract Rob Rowe’s notes for 2018 Interesting colour effects in fungi - Ted Blackwell Quote from an unknown source And finally – a challenge Exidia recisa Jo Weightman This species is described as locally common. For all that, after forty plus years of fungussing, and a lifetime of general gazing, I saw my first in 2018 in the churchyard at Hope. In the same month further examples were found two sites in Herefordshire. So a happy combination of season, temperature and, above all, moisture. Maybe Exidia recisa was having a ‘year’. What it took to find it was a person whose eyes were not glued to the ground. For this is primarily a species of dead but still attached wood. The Shropshire specimens were at head height or higher, on the outermost twigs of a large, free-growing goat willow Salix caprea. So, well aerated. One of the Herefordshire collections was actually on a fallen branch that was caught up in surrounding scrub and so well exposed. The Exidias are jelly fungi and as such are adapted to a life of exposure, as their bodies ‘capture’ moisture and swell up when it rains. In this turgid condition, they are able to disperse their spores onto equally moist future hosts. As the air and surroundings dry, becoming unsuitable for spore germination, so do the fruit-bodies shrink to almost nothing and sporulation stops. The fruit-bodies of Exidia recisa are golden brown, like amber when the sun shines through them, top-shaped, becoming pendulous when fully charged. In the field, occurrence on willow is a strong clue to identification. The only other brownish Exidias are E. saccharina which is confined to pine and E repanda which grows on birch in Scotland. Tremella foliacea is a similar colour and occurs on a very wide range of trees and shrubs but the fruit-bodies form large convoluted masses not single pustules. E. recisa has been known to occur on broadleaf hosts other than willow, in which case it would be necessary to check the spores under the microscope. It appears in autumn and early winter. This is the second record for Shropshire, the first sighting exactly 100 years ago at Plowden. And the first records for Herefordshire. The message is - if near willows, look up. 2 First records for Shropshire in 2018 Jo Weightman We have recorded well over 40 new species in the county this year. However most of them come from a single source – Peter Thompson, an expert in ascomycetes and micro-fungi. He is monitoring two sites in the county, Muxton Marsh and Eardington Local Nature Reserve. Group forays have recorded five: Ceriporiopsis gilvescens - on fallen broadleaf wood, Linley Hall, 15th September A fairly common species nationally, probably often passed over as yet another white poroid crust. It is quite soft when fresh staining pink when touched, a good indicator but microscopic examination is essential. Spore size and shape are helpful. Presence of blue staining crystals on the hyphae and clamps on the septa are more definitive. Dacrymyces capitatus - on a fence rail, Linley Hall, 15th September Easily confused with the very common D. stillatus but with a fairly distinct stalk and smaller spores. Possibly under-recorded. Cheilymenia crucipila - on fallen leaves, Sallow Coppice, Craven Arms, 4th November Red discs 3-12 mm across, with a few yellowish, blunt, pale-tipped hairs on the outside. The spores have fine blue-staining warts and the hairs are forked at the base. Inocybe glabripes (formerly microspora) - associated with willow? scrub, on poor soils, Snailbeach, 21st October An Inocybe with no give-away characters in the field and pruinose only at the apex of the stipe. Under the microscope, the spores are amygdaloid (almond-shaped), smooth, not knobbly, and, as the specific name implies, small for the genus. Cystidia metuloid (thick- walled with crystals) and fairly narrow-necked. Occasionally reported nationally and probably under-recorded. Tolypocladium capitatum (Cordyceps capitata) Snailbeach, 21st October (first modern record) All Tolypocladium and Cordyceps species are parasitic. T. capitatum arises from a false truffle, Elaphomyces sp. which was not found on this occasion. It looks like a drumstick with a spherical, yellow-brown head on a pale stipe. The head is pimpled with the ostioles – the dark openings through which the spores are discharged. It has not been found in Shropshire since Rea collected it in the Wyre Forest in the nineteenth century. Collected by Rob Rowe. 3 Wilding An edited extract from the book ‘Wilding’ about the efforts of one landowner to allow nature to take its own course, by Isabella Tree. Highly recommended. Like soil bacteria, mycorrhizal fungi free up essential elements in the soil, Phosphorus, Copper, Calcium, Magnesium, Zinc and Iron, making them available in a form that plants can absorb. But mycorrhizal fungi also contribute a compelling argument to the value of rewilding the soil – that of carbon sequestration. One of the secrets is an extraordinary substance called Glomalin, which is, surprisingly, still little discussed. It was discovered in 1996 by scientists in the USA. A sticky glycoprotein, it is produced by mycorrhizal fungi from carbon extracted from the roots of plants. Its gluey proteins coat the hyphae of the mycorrhizal fungi, protecting them from decomposition and microbial attack. Acting as microscopic underground conduits, the hyphae extend the reach of a plant’s roots to areas in the soil that the roots are unable to exploit on their own. Glomalin reinforces the hyphae, sealing the conduits to prevent leakage, and ensuring the efficient transport of distant water and nutrients back to the plant. Glomalin has profound effects on soil as well. As plants grow, the hyphae creep down the plant’s roots establishing new networks near the extending tip. Higher up the root, the defunct hyphae slough off their protective Glomalin, which falls back into the soil and attaches to particles of sand, silt, clay and organic matter, forming lumps of soil (‘aggregates’), allowing water, air and nutrients to infiltrate the spaces between. Protected by their tough, waxy coating of Glomalin these aggregates are what gives soil its structure – the kind of friable tilth a famer crumbles appreciatively between their fingers. Glomalin is extraordinarily durable. Tests have shown it can survive intact in the soil for more than forty years. It can only be separated from soil by immersing it in citrate solution and subjecting it to extreme heat for over an hour. Glomalin is made up of protein and carbohydrate sub-units, both containing carbon, the total of which comprises 20-40 per cent of the molecule – a considerable proportion compared to the 8% in humic acid, once thought of as the main storage material for soil carbon. Aided by Glomalin aggregates protect organic carbon from decay by microbes. More mycorrhizal fungi in the soil produce more stable aggregates, and more aggregates result in higher soil carbon storage. Amazingly, the world’s soils hold more carbon as organic matter than all the vegetation on the planet, including rainforest. 82% of carbon in the terrestrial biosphere is in the soil. One of the remarkable features of mycorrhizal fungi is their ability to respond to rising carbon-dioxide levels in the atmosphere by increasing their production of Glomalin. In a three year experiment, scientists used out-door chambers to control carbon-dioxide levels 4 on small areas of natural grassland. They found that when the gas reached a concentration of 670 parts per million – the level predicted for this planet by the end of the century – the hyphae grew three times as long and produced five times more Glomalin than those exposed to today’s levels. Improving the structure of our soils and returning unproductive agricultural land to permanent pasture could be a crucial weapon in the battle against rising levels of carbon dioxide. It is estimated that carbon capture by the world’s farmlands, if better managed, could total as much as 10 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide a year, more than the annual accumulation in the atmosphere, and if organic matter in the world’s farmed soils was increased by as little as 1.6%, the problem of climate change would be solved. Rob Rowe’s notes from 2108 CFGA fungi outings Autumn 2018 Caring for God's Acre Surveys in churchyards 2018 This Autumn I again had the pleasure of organising several fungi survey days for CFGA in South West Shropshire and Shrewsbury. Many of these churchyards have areas of old unimproved grassland and ancient trees and are often good for many plant and fungi species I was fortunate to be joined by Jo Weightman for some of these outings. They were well advertised and we were always joined by several interested locals and a dedicated band of volunteers. The fungi were not generally as good or plentiful as last year but there was always enough to keep people interested. Of these churchyards there were several gems. Many of the best fungi sites seem to be grass that has been cut short all year, [particularly More] although others such as Ratlinghope [which is managed as a hay meadow and then cut later in the year] were also very good. Over the two seasons a total of 18 different species of waxcaps were found, 5 species of earthtongue, 5 species of earthstar and several corals and spindles. In 2018 we undertook five outings in total and visited churchyards at Bishops Castle, More, Onibury, Stokesay, Halford, Hope, Snailbeech, Ratlinghope and Longden Coleham.