Fungi for Identification.

[Lancashire Lad]

Hi everyone,

New to this forum and would like some help on identification. (I am a dummy as far as Fungi goes).

I think that the first image might be Hygrocybe miniata, but not sure.
Very small - about 25mm tall if that.
I found it recently in full sun on a south facing grassy bank, calcareous soil, at Salthill Quarry Clitheroe.

I have no idea what the second image is. (Some sort of waxcap maybe?).
It was about 50-60mm tall.
Found that one on open grassy area of a reclaimed landfill near to Haslingden's "Halo" Panopticon.





Regards
Mike.

[KeenTeen17]

I agree with hygrocybe miniata.

the second one could be hygrocybe psittacina

[fairplay]

Hi Mike,

Welcome to the fungi forum, some very good photo's here, but it makes things easier for us to try to I.D. if you pull up one fungi and lay it alongside the other so that we can see the colour of the gills and the way they are attached to the stem.

With certain species it is also important to show the base of the stem too.

I'll just quote from a well used reference book by Breitenbach & Kranzlin under remarks for Hygrocybe miniata:

"Identification aids which depend purely on macroscopic (large) features are insufficient for the identification of red to orange/red Hygrocybes with dry, squamulose pilei (caps).
They cannot even be separated microscopically by the slight difference in spore sizes.
Reliable differentiating characters are the cell-length of the hyphae in the lamellar trama (flesh of the gills) and the number of nuclei (atomic bombs) in the spores" End of Quote.
In other words, there are other identical red ones to get confused with.

Without seeing the gill colour of your other fungi, it is hard to tell if they are Mycena or Conocybe or something else (not H. psittacina though !)

Neil.

[Lancashire Lad]

Thanks guys.

I try to work with the view that if you can't get your photo without frightening / endangering / damaging your subject, then leave it alone.

But I can see that fungi must be a nightmare to identify as there are so many similar looking things out there.

In future, I'll endeavour to provide underside / stem pics. as well. (If there are lots of specimens around).

Otherwise, with my lack of knowledge I'd probably be the one who pulled up some prize specimen that someone else had been monitoring!

Regards
Mike.

[fairplay]

You have the right attitude there Mike, good luck.

Neil.


P.S. Do keep sending in your queries though, and photo's.