Blue and purple - fungus?

JennyS · #1 (**permalink**) 26-08-2009, 09:41 PM

This was on dead Holly - I'm sure there was a previous thread with something very similar, but I can't find it - ID very appreciated!

ManwithNoname · #2 (**permalink**) 26-08-2009, 11:54 PM

This is what was called Pulcherricium caeruleum but is now called Terana caerulea. The English name is Cobalt Crust.

Chris Yeates · #3 (**permalink**) 27-08-2009, 12:40 AM

hi Jenny

a significant find (if in the Republic?) see the map:

NBN Gateway: Cobalt Crust (Terana caerulea) grid map

if you still have the specimen I would keep some of it for the national herbarium

pity the old name had to go . . . Pulcherricium from the Latin pulcher meaning beautiful - which it unarguably is

best

Chris

JennyS · #4 (**permalink**) 27-08-2009, 09:45 AM

Thank you Noname and Chris for the identification.

Extra thanks Chris for the distribution link, it wouldn't have occurred to me it might be rare or possibly unrecorded in SW Ireland. (Though often I think its a scarcity of recorders rather than species ..........)

That was a good quick walk down the road - I came home with the Cobalt Crust in one hand and a possible Melanohalea elegantula (interesting lichen) in the other!