Various Lycoperdon and Bovista

[SheffieldLass]

I thought I'd group all of these together, found between end Sept-early December. Another set of fungi that are not (to me) as straight forward as they might first appear, and unfortunatley I didn't have time to properly examine them at the time ... I'd be interested to see what ids people would give these. All were in acid upland habitat, and all in open unimproved grassland or grassland/heath mosaic except for the very last, which was in grass but close to coniferous and deciduous woodland, but not obviously growing on wood.

The first are Bovista, I think, but I've noticed that some former Bovista have moved into the Lycoperdon genus....

1
I suspect the white one,with time, would have become like the older ones. My guess is these are B plumbea because they don't seem quite dark enough B nigrescens, though they are not exactly lead coloured either. All the old ones that I have come across do have the network of wrinkles, which seems to be characteristic of the ones on this particular site, and which I've not seen on other people's photos.

2 This one I'm not sure whether it is Lycoperdon pratense, I didn't check this one underneath, or perhaps it is a Bovista... I've come across L pratense on the site in previous years.


3 These were on the North Pennine moors, maybe Lycoperdon lividum?


These I think are all Lycoperdon nigrescens, but they are quite variable. I've grouped the photos where it is of one specimen. These all have spines forming wigwams.
4 ..... .....

.....


The following were found in Harthope valley, Northumberland, about 60m from a coniferous plantation, but with some deciduous trees closer.
5 these just don't look quite like the ones that I see regularly locally, (which I think are L nigrescens), because these have a very distinctive white background and patterning that I've not seen on the ones locally to the same extent. The spines also don't seem to have the wigwam structure, though maybe they have worn off.

Melanie

[SheffieldLass]

Well I rediscovered the very first one of #1, in my garden yesterday, 4 months later, where I'd put it after it started to go a bit sad in my fridge, whilst waiting an id. It is now nicely weathered and clearly Bovista nigrescens.

I keep planting the bits of grass and moss that accompany the grassland fungi in a part of my garden, as they would probably have been the grass types when these gardens were fields more than a century ago, so hopefully I'll get the right environment for some of these cast-offs to develop in future.

Melanie

[diggleken]

Be interesting to see if that works Melanie - do we have any scientific info on spore dormancy and life span deterioration do you know?
ie how long they are, whats that word now, potent?
Cheers
Ken