Fungal foray

Today I've been up on the Roaches Estate with local fungi expert, John Stanney, to survey for fungi as part of our Natural England higher level stewardship agreement.  A survey in 2012 found many interesting species of waxcap and Staffordshire Wildlife Trust are keen to see how they're doing.

Its not been a great year for fungi.  September was the driest since records began in 1910 with, on average, just a fifth of the usual amount of rain.  As a result the amount of fungi we managed to record was greatly reduced, but we still managed to record 11 of the 14 species we're monitoring.

However, star of the show was the 'Caterpillar fungus'.  The species identified was the Scarlet Caterpillarclub Cordyceps militaris.  This fungus is reasonably colourful but that's not the reason its so amazing.  This fungus is parasitic on the pupae or larva of butterflies and moths, which is effectively mummifies and keeps alive just long enough to produce the fruiting bodies we see above ground.  That's right, fungi aren't all feeding off dead wood.  Some are murderers!

Above ground, a colourful little fungus

Below ground, a murderer!  You can just make out the mummified creature

Other species recorded included blackening waxcap, parrot waxcap, meadow coral, scarlet waxcap and several mosaic puffballs.  The final treat of the day was a skein of 150+ pink-feet which flew over, a true sign of autumn!

Meadow waxcap

Mosaic puffball

Meadow coral

Parrot waxcap

Can you see the pink-feet skein?