Ceps all gone

[Nick_in_Scotland]

I took a trip up to perthshire to hopefully find some more ceps in my favourite "top secret" forests but they have all succumbed to the parasitic fungus which mykonik told me about. It was rather sad to see a number of mummified, now completely yellow ceps scattered about.

I had a theory that now, with colder weather, conditions would mean that it was less humid and there would be less of this "mould" fungus about to attack the ceps. What seems to have happened instead is that the ceps themselves have stopped growing and just these old rotted things are still lying about. With hindsight I was guaranteed not to find any because I had plans to preserve some and had promised some for my dad. Murphy's law applies .
All was not lost as I found a couple of patches of chanterelles, some in not too bad a state. Recent news stories were foremost in my mind as I carefully identified them!

Ceps are not growing there at the moment but there was plenty of other fungi- Russula, Inocybe, Cortinarius (including some dodgy looking orangy brown ones ), etc. The problem with mushrooms is that there are too many this time of year to deal with!
I did make the interesting observation that there seem to be a lot of Jelly Babies around this year and I kept finding large groups of them in many forests.

[timhale197200]

Thats a nice patch of chanterelles, Nick. Shame about the ceps, tho. I also have noticed large groups of jelly babies in Gisburn forest which i can't recall seeing last year.

[Nick_in_Scotland]

Thanks Tim, there were some other patches about but they were way past their best. As for the lack of ceps, I suppose it's all part of the fun of mushrooming, you never know what you're going to get. Interesting that you are seeing jelly babies too. It must be the year for them.

[NickCantle]

The Cep mould seems to be more confined to Pine Woodland finds rather than deciduous woods. I remember in '06, I was scouting my favourite patch which has Pine trees one side of a path and a Beech and Oak mix on the other side. There were Ceps growing on the Pine edge and they had all been overcome by the mould, but the ones growing in the moss aside the Beech and Oak were lovely!

[Nick_in_Scotland]

Originally Posted by NickCantle

The Cep mould seems to be more confined to Pine Woodland finds rather than deciduous woods. I remember in '06, I was scouting my favourite patch which has Pine trees one side of a path and a Beech and Oak mix on the other side. There were Ceps growing on the Pine edge and they had all been overcome by the mould, but the ones growing in the moss aside the Beech and Oak were lovely!

Ah now that's interesting Nick, there is a spruce forest which has beech on the edge where I found ceps last month. This time I gave up before I even reached the beech trees at the edge. If I had gone on I might have found some good 'uns.

I would speculate there are a couple of reasons why this might be. Conifer trees seem to be planted a lot more closely together (to maximise profit when they are harvested one would guess) so it maybe encourages higher humidity and therefore favours the growth of mould type fungi. Secondly it may be a bit brighter under the more open deciduous woodland and ultraviolet light from the sun can "sterilise" the cep fruiting bodies and kill off the mould mycelium, whilst the cep mycelium is safely sheltered under the ground. Or there might be some completely different reason....

Nick.

[NickCantle]

Well the Pines down here in Breckland are planted close together to act as a windbreak. With Norfolk being flat (which it isn't, but it is in comparison to Yorkshire or somewhere), the winds would blow across the heaths and fields, taking the valuable topsoil off, leaving us with sand. The plantations are now a characteristic of the county.

[Nick_in_Scotland]

Nick, are you definitely talking about pine trees and not spruce trees here? The reason I ask is that I know many people refer to all conifers as "pine", and I almost never find ceps under pine, or if I do it's only because there are spruce trees present also. I came to the conclusion that ceps are only associated with spruce or beech.

[NickCantle]

You might want to look under larch too. I'll check what trees they are later. I know they're referred to as Breckland Pines.

[fairplay]

They will mostly be the same as we have down here in the Suffolk Sandlings Nick - Scot's Pine & Corsican Pine, though in Thetford forest proper, they may well have planted pockets of Spruce here and there.

Neil.

[Nick_in_Scotland]

Originally Posted by NickCantle

You might want to look under larch too. I'll check what trees they are later. I know they're referred to as Breckland Pines.

Hi Nick,

No need to go to a lot of trouble, just curious. Quite a bit of larch has been planted up here and I've never found Boletus edulis under them either. Plenty of Suillus grevillei but no surprises there. Larch woods seem to produce all kinds of weird little fungi later on in autumn, few of which I recognise. I should really make a bigger effort there.

Nick.