Fungi ID please

[cicada]

Hi, this is my first post ... probobly with the most common question ... can someone ID these fungi for me please? Growing along in a line in various shapes/stages. In a mixed sand dune/marsh area. Sorry if its some common entity but it's hard to track em down if you don't have a clue to the name!
Two photos of nearby/connected fungi.

[NickCantle]

The first image looks like a very far gone Hygrocybe nigrescens. The way it has curled up like this and turned a carbon-like black is quite typical.

The other image is of something that is way past its best and pretty bad for an ID

Nick

[KeenTeen17]

welcome to WAB!

nick is right with the first as always.

I am thinking lacrymaria lacrabunda for the dead one

[cicada]

Thanks Nick and KeenTeen,
seems I found them too late! but I think it still looks very attractive in this curled up late stage.
This much smaller orange one was near by maybe it confirms your Hygrocybe nigrescens IDing ?

And I like the slug damage effect on the beige one .... as you can tell my IDing knowledge is zilch, but I hope to improve !

Thanks again

[Chris Yeates]

hi

it's possible that this is a variety of H. conica - var. conicoides - described as a species by Peter Orton, but reduced to varietal rank by David Boertmann in his monograph on Hygrocybe (1995)

he accepts it as a separate taxon based on its being restricted to coastal dunes and its characteristic long and narrow spores

the former we can agree on - the latter is harder to see (!) so perhaps "possibly Hygrocybe conica var. conicoides" is the closest you can get

regards

Chris

[cicada]

Hi Chris

Thanks for your reply, and please excuse my ignorance, but are you refering the the original 'black' shrooms or the later orange and beige photos? All were taken costal dunes as you mentioned.

[Chris Yeates]

Originally Posted by cicada

Hi Chris

Thanks for your reply, and please excuse my ignorance, but are you refering the the original 'black' shrooms or the later orange and beige photos? All were taken costal dunes as you mentioned.

hi

leaving aside the beige one and the 'dearly departed' one, the black one and the orange one are almost certainly the same species (or even, as I say, the same variety of the same species) - confusing isn't it? - you can see the orangey one just starting to blacken at the point where the cap is damaged on the right hand side . . . plus there is the clue of the habitat and the fact that you said they were growing close to one another

Nick C used the name Hygrocybe nigrescens which is a name which was used when it was thought that there were two species - nigrescens and Hygrocybe conica; the situation was difficult as the characters used to distinguish them were very subjective; Boertmann, having looked at 1000s of Hygrocybe's very helpfully said he was certain that these two 'species' were actually one and the same, but very variable, the extremes had been given different names, but every stage between those extremes could be found as well (gratitude all round!); although the name H. nigrescens (which means 'blackening') would have been the more useful, because of the international rules which are necessary for naming organisms H. conica has priority

I hope that hasn't muddied the water too much for you

best

Chris

[NickCantle]

I don't know why I used H. nigrescens

[cicada]

Thanks for the detailed info ... I can see that it is going to take a long time before I have any confidence to ID a fungi .... so I'm sure to be putting up some more photos for all you experts out there in WAB-land !
regards

[cicada]

PS ... should I put the black curly into the Gallery as a Hygrocybe conica, late stage, if that would help someone else ?

May they all RIP ... and I hope to find the same spot earlier next year and get them in their prime!