Whilst out today in the Whitland area looking for rusts I came across a
stack of Big-bale silage adjacent to a track leading to a farm. The
bales were contaminated with the "split-gill" fungus - Shizophyllum
commune. This fungus totally devastated the silage bales in Ireland in
the 1990's and is spreading across the UK. 
Just down the road from this site is Bryngwynt Chapel. Even though we have had a few frosts this week there was a fine troupe of waxcap fungi on display in the burial ground.
Good to have the 'rust-man' seeing larger fungi. I find the 'Splitgill' rather less common than some years ago as silage-bag material seems more robust and not so liable to get damaged than previously. These could be spotted from a moving car --- provided traffic was light. The waxcap looks like Hygrocybe intermedia (Fibrous Waxcap) with orange/red fibrous cap and relatively stout fibrous stipe. Any other offers of a name for this?
ReplyDeleteIn May, one of our hay bales at the Botanic Garden was coverered in what I took to be Peziza vesiculosa, the blistered cup. I seem to remember Shizophyllum infested the hay bales on the filed below the Ice House a couple of years ago.
ReplyDeleteAs for the waxcap, my books suggest it's very late for H.intermedia and may more likely be H.punicea, but there's a gheck of lot opf them on that photo. I don't think I've been to Brtyngwynt - must add it to the list of places to look.