Fungi
20 January 2026
Su met Tim Bruning to look for more fungi species at the Reserve on 20th January. Tim has now reviewed the specimens and this is his report. To see the full list, click here
Recent wet and mostly mild weather has allowed particularly wood-dwelling fungi to grow fruiting bodies for spore dispersal. The practice of laying cut branches in piles provides a lot of surface area which also has less latent heat than whole logs so these warm up quickly giving substrate to a number of wood-dwelling saprophytes (organisms that live on decaying matter). We also found one or two less usual species on oak in the older Watt's Wood.
Three prevalent groups on wood, not quite exclusively though.
1. Crust fungi are mostly applied to the wood surface (resupinate) presenting a variety of colours and textures. They bear spores in fours on specialised hyphal buddings (basidia), naming then takes a while as it's necessary to get a spore print by laying the shaved-off fungus on a slide and waiting a good 24 hours. They are often at their best in winter taking advantage of continued wet, also it's easier to search through the habitat when there's less vegetation like nettles impeding the intrepid mycologist!
Recent wet and mostly mild weather has allowed particularly wood-dwelling fungi to grow fruiting bodies for spore dispersal. The practice of laying cut branches in piles provides a lot of surface area which also has less latent heat than whole logs so these warm up quickly giving substrate to a number of wood-dwelling saprophytes (organisms that live on decaying matter). We also found one or two less usual species on oak in the older Watt's Wood.
Three prevalent groups on wood, not quite exclusively though.
1. Crust fungi are mostly applied to the wood surface (resupinate) presenting a variety of colours and textures. They bear spores in fours on specialised hyphal buddings (basidia), naming then takes a while as it's necessary to get a spore print by laying the shaved-off fungus on a slide and waiting a good 24 hours. They are often at their best in winter taking advantage of continued wet, also it's easier to search through the habitat when there's less vegetation like nettles impeding the intrepid mycologist!
Rosy Crust Peniophora incarnata on Alder, this one is waxy/leathery spores shaped like kidney-beans
The Tear Dropper Cylindrobasidium laeve abundant and vigorous on willow branches, growing fast enough to pucker the spore-bearing surface into toothy lumps, named for the tear-shaped (lacrymoid) spores.
Silver-leaf Fungus Chondrostereum purpureum on willow, here applied tight although often makes little tiered brackets, an asexual stage causes the disease of Prunus especially plums and peaches.
Ochre Spreading Tooth Steccherinum ochraceum from underside of lone fallen oak branch, Watt's Wood, distinctive texture, the teeth expand the spore-bearing area, this one was very tough and ~ impossible to slice or squash for microscope work; first Lincolnshire record
2. The jelly-fungi are often prevalent after rain, wood is the usual substrate though a fair number are parasitic or saprophytic on other fungi . They are gelatinous sometimes rubbery, the most usually seen is the Wood-ear or Jelly-ear Auricularia auricula-judae which was present as young fruiting bodies on Jan 20th; visitors will also likely see the 'Yellow-Brain' Tremella mesenterica which grows on old crusts of Peniophora spp. on a variety of hardwoods.
Black Witch's Butter Exidia nigricans on alder, closely applied with a convoluted surface with widely spaced warts
Black Witch's Butter Exidia glandulosa on oak, Watt's Wood, a thicker fruiting body with a near-planar surface densely warted so felted like a tongue as per close-up
Close up of Black Witch's Butter Exidia glandulosa on oak. NB the above English name is applied to three species of Exidia, and 'Witch's Butter' is also used for 'Yellow Brain'
3. The third large group of fungi to show mostly on wood in winter is Ascomycetes in particular Pyrenomycetes (Greek 'pyrene' a stone or kernel- they are hard) Their spores are formed in tubular containers called asci typically with eight spores in a row. The Pyrenomycetes are small mostly black, mostly roundish fungi with a thick wall lined with asci that discharge spores through a tiny hole (ostiole) . Being small, black, thick walled means they tolerate drought, exposure, UV light, and warm up quickly to disperse spores when conditions are right. There are numerous species some confined to a particular host, others are 'plurivorous' (will grow on any wood) once you start looking you don't stop finding them. During spring and summer they occur on last year's standing or fallen decaying stems again often specific to each flowering plant- nettles with their near-woody stems are worth a look, also willow-herb, umbellifers.
Hazel Woodwart Hypoxylon fuscum which is a hard slightly knobbly aggregate of several fused fruiting bodies abundant on a hazel trunk laid amongst alder branches. Birch Woodwart (Jackrogersella multiformis ) is also common at Ashing Lane.
Hazel woodwart
Nitschkia collapsa, no English name, on alder, this was a 'hitcher' found incidentally under a stereomicroscope when looking at a fine branch collected as there was a crust on it . The small spherical fruiting bodies collapse after spore discharge to look like bowls.
Rosellinia aquila, no English name, a common one distinctive like tiny cannonballs with a nipple around the ostiole, nestling on a mat of black fungal threads , this was on barkless rotting alder
Bisporella pallida x40, no English name, an example of a Discomycete which has asci lining the upper surface of an open cup or disc, not as hardy as Pyrenomycetes so more prevalent in Spring, this one on a torn end of a rotten hazel branch without bark
Ochre Cushion Hypocrea pulvinata growing on the spore-bearing surface of old fruiting body of Hairy Curtain-Crust ( Stereum hirsutum), which is abundant in the branch piles and on fallen bigger wood at Ashing Lane. The usual host given in books is Birch Polypore. The closer photo is after applying 3% Potassium Hydroxide which stained the Stereum black, but the cushions of the secondary fungus red(dish!) . This group is mostly parasitic on plants or fungi so doesn't invest heavily in protection ,the spore-bearing layer usually replaces the exterior of the host, this one stands out more than most. Fourth Lincolnshire record, last noted by the late Ken Rowland in 1997.
Ochre cushion
First Foray 16 October 2025
Tim (Bruning), Tim (Dorrington) and Colin (Smith) came out to Ashing Lane Nature Reserve to start a survey of the fungi on the site.
After several hours in Watts Wood, South Wood and Coop Wood, quite a list was being developed and can be found here. As Tim B observes "New-ish plantings can show unusual abundance of particular species which is what we saw". In total, 55 species were identified on the Reserve, after a dry summer, maybe even more to be found in a different year!
The photos from Tim D and Colin are shown below with Tim B's notes:
After several hours in Watts Wood, South Wood and Coop Wood, quite a list was being developed and can be found here. As Tim B observes "New-ish plantings can show unusual abundance of particular species which is what we saw". In total, 55 species were identified on the Reserve, after a dry summer, maybe even more to be found in a different year!
The photos from Tim D and Colin are shown below with Tim B's notes:
Southern Bracket (Ganoderma australe) quite a common one on various broadleaves often in parks and gardens. Watts Wood. Photo: Tim Dorrington
The brown-scaly version of Common Inkcap ( Coprinopsis romagnesiana) found as a small tuft by Tim D we think on buried wood by track thro' South Wood - this is the second Lincolnshire record-it's a recently published segregate. Photo: Tim Dorrington
Girdled Knight ( Tricholoma cingulatum) in large numbers under willows in South Wood , associated with willow, can come in quite quick to new plantings, I don't see it that often. Photo: Tim Dorrington
Tawny Milkcap ( Lactarius fulvissimus) fairly common under broadleaves. Photo: Tim Dorrington
Fibrecap (Inocybe curvipes) common mostly in grassy glades in South Wood with birch/willow, has a slightly scaly cap with a prominent umbo. Photo: Tim Bruning
Fibrecap microscopy - end-cells of hyphae on the gill edge (cystidia) swollen with crystals, and starry nodular spores, x600. Photo: Tim Bruning
Bleached Brittlegill ( Russula exalbicans) in huge numbers under young birch (? ~ 7 y or so) by lake, photo in situ shows the rose-pink...
...Bleached bittergill later, washed out to nearly cream
Mycoacia fuscoatra, a toothed crust fungus from Watt’s Wood, on likely Field Maple branch with at least four other fungi. Appears to be the first Lincolnshire record although not many people locally are looking out for crust fungi.
22 October 2019
Susie Mendel took some photos of fungi she found on the Reserve. She was confident about the ID of the puffballs and shaggy inkcaps, but six years later, Tim Bruning has done his best to ID the rest from the photos.
Common Puff-Ball Lycoperdon perlatum
Shaggy Inkcap Coprinus comatus
ID by Tim B from photo:
very likely a Poisonpie Hebeloma species probably H. mesophaeum 'Veiled Poison-Pie' it's very hygrophanous ( concentric rings on cap from taking up water)... it's very prevalent on site
ID by Tim B from photo:
Probably White Fibrecap Inocybe geophylla , common on site and very white on top
ID by Tim B from photo:
Quite likely to be Laccaria laccata 'The Deceiver' which can look like anything
ID by Tim B from photo:
Very very likely to be the Webcap Cortinarius bivelus with that stout cap and albeit faint darker radial streaking, that would predate our record by six years