Benham Marsh, Berkshire - 30/04/08

After a short four mile drive, we knew when we had reached the destination as J.P put his hazard warning lights on and pulled over on the left side of the road to park. We got out and immediately starting strolling towards the sign 'Public Footpath' which led away from the roads, house and any other civilisation and made our way down a gravel road full of deep puddles. We took a quick look in the wood-chip that was beside the path that was being used to maintain the gardens of the housing estate neighbouring the path, but to our disappointment, we found no trace of Morchella. We eventually reached a stone bridge that crossed the canal. We took a left turn to walk adjacent to the canal, the weather looking up and the birds singing. David noticed a very dark reed growing beside the canal and picked one, its purple and ebony tint flaring in the light. We continued to stroll down the path until we came to a fence that we had to sharply double back on ourselves behind (that confused me too, and I was there!). Once that was sorted, we entered dark and dank woodland with boggy floors. About thirty metres in, and there they were. There must have been five or six of these beautifully coloured bracket fungus. We photographed them and as David was observing one, I found a nice snail shell, popped it on the alder log that the brackets were growing on, and took a picture.







As the lads were still fascinated by the red, orange and black brackets, I decided to have a wander to see what I could see. The odd Piptoporus betulinus and old pieces of Ganoderma sp. were about and it was only when I looked back to check that John and David were still where I left them, that I noticed some bright lumps growing on a conifer tree. One of the doubts that we had about the brackets being Fomitopsis pinicola was that they are known to grow on conifers and much less likely to grow on deciduous trees, so of course I was extremely excited about having spotted these. "Lads, you might want to have a look at this" I proclaimed through the woods, and a second later, over they came and when they latched on to what I had seen, their eyes lit up like mine had done. So that's one incredibly rare fungus, and three suspected discoveries of it, all on different substrates, all in one rainy day- one had to be it, didn't it? I'll make sure to report back with a conformation of whatever species it is and we can only hope that we had found Fomitopsis pinicola. After photographs were taken and yet another sample was removed, we strolled back the way we came. It seemed like a jinx to say that the weather was looking up as it just started to cloud over again. Before we knew it, we were getting pelted by hailstones, though that didn't stop me spotting the electric blue flash of the Kingfisher as he appeared from under the bridge. We arrived back on the road, like three drowned rats and a dog, but when you're out there discovering new species for your lists, taking photos for your sites and just learning more and more about the mycological world, the rain is most welcome.
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The species list for the day, as compiled by J.P;

Polyporus squamosus
Coprinus domesticus
Coprinus atrementarius
Coprinus lagopus
Coprinus micaceus
Calocybe gambosa
Laetiporus sulphureus
Auricularia auricula-judae
Polyporus brumalis
Peziza varia
Peziza vesiculosa
Helvella sp
Phellinus ferreus
Phellinus igniarius
Dacrymyces stillatus
Kretzschmaria deusta
Ganoderma australe
Pluteus cervinus
Pluteus thompsonii
Schizopora paradoxa
Peziza bovina
Trametes gibbosa
Hypholoma fasiculare
Enteridium lycoperdon
Chlorociboria aeruginascens
Strobilurus tenacellus
Panellus stypticus
Lycogala terrestre

The star finds of the day were 3 red brackets- possibly and hopefully the rare Fomitopsis pinicola amongst them.

Thanks for reading,

Nick