Unusual fungi for ID please.

[Lancashire Lad]

Have no idea what these are.

All found today, growing on small fallen/rotting branches among leaf litter in a mixed deciduous woodland (Primarily Beech with some Ash & a few Oak).

Never seen any like these before today, but there were several individual specimens dotted about the floor of the wood.

Cap size about 15mm diameter stipe similar in height.


I'm not sure if the second pair are the same sort, similar cap size 15mm but they were substantially taller - about 75mm.


Never seen any of these before today, but there were several dotted about the floor of this woodland.

Regards
Mike.

[Hedge Witch]

First thought is Hedgehog fungus, but an expert will no doubt be right along

[NickCantle]

They look to me like frost-bitten Polyporus leptocephalus Mike. Not a bad call Hedgie, but if you look closer, they're not spines, they're pores. The Black leg is characteristic of P. leptocephalus.

Nick

[Hedge Witch]

No, wrong. Any one else?

EDIT, yes, and the fact that they aren't found at this time of year - oops. Thanks Nick.

[Lancashire Lad]

Originally Posted by NickCantle

They look to me like frost-bitten Polyporus leptocephalus Mike. Not a bad call Hedgie, but if you look closer, they're not spines, they're pores. The Black leg is characteristic of P. leptocephalus.

Nick

Hi Nick, I had a look at P. leptocephalus in Phillips, but decided they couldn't be that, as their stems were much too long. (Phillips says maximum 30mm ).

They all definitely had pores.

Regrds
Mike.

[NickCantle]

The size is something that I go on in books as a vague guideline, though 75mm in comparison to 30mm is substantially bigger.

I can't see that there's anything else that I've ever seen that these might be. I suppose you could put it down to an atypical, frost-bitten bunch. Frost does seem to have an effect on size and proportion of developing specimens so that might fit, but they are definitely large!

I stand by original suggestion and that they're just atypical, but I eagerly await the expert advice

[Hedge Witch]

Don't be so modest Nick!

[gleditsa]

if you had said there some pine trees nearby, i would have thought that these were old specimens of Auriscalpium vulgare, but as they are reputed to be only found on buried pine cones ,that seems unlikely

[flaxton]

There used to be a var nummularius which was smaller with a circular cap which would fit well with your find This is now just considered a form of leptocephalus

Mal

[NickCantle]

Well the thing is, you can sit at home 365 days a year with 100 of the best mycological books and learn about harpoon shaped Cheilocystidia, dark lamellar edges and scurfy pilei, but that won't get you anywhere in terms of recognising things in the field (okay, it will a few but not many). The key to recognition of things upon finding them is field experience, and you can only get that by being exposed to variations and atypical attributes of size, shape, species and colour. I don't often have too much to do with my free time so I spend so much of it outdoors with the camera looking for fungi, and that's how I seem to have learned about variations and the like.

I don't know anything about scurfy pilei

EDIT; Or you could coincidentally be reading the book that has the part about the P. leptocephalus variation in