Confetti-like fungus for ID please

[Pete Collins]

Sorry about the very poor photos. I came across this tiny fungus growing near Ibstone in Buckinghamshire today. There were two or three patches of it, almost like confetti scattered across the ground - I had to look carefully to check it was a fungus. Altogether they covered about 2-3 square yards, I'd guess.

Sorry to give you so little to go on, I've not seen such a small fungus occurring in such profusion and just wondered if someone could give me some idea of what it might be. Thanks.

[Ken Burgess]

As you probably suspected, there isn't enough information in your photos even to hazard a guess as to what your specimens are. Unless there are distinctive characters visible in the photo, it can be hard to know what they are at the best of times. But small mushrooms tend to be less studied and less well known than larger ones, so you generally need even more information to narrow down the options.

Ken

[Pete Collins]

Thanks Ken, I did suspect as much. I'd just not noticed any small fungus so prevalent over a small area before, so wondered if there were only one or two that behaved like that. Obviously not! I did try to get better photos, but it was in a shaded area near the end of the day and my camera struggled in the poor light (it's a poor workman that blames his tools, I know!).

Thanks anyway.

[Lancashire Lad]

I bow to Ken's far greater knowledge and fully appreciate that there is no chance of positively identifying these on the information available.

But just going on what there is - small white bell shaped, large trooping colony amongst coniferous/pine debris, Hemimycena pseudogracilis might be a good contender. Might be worth comparing photos etc. if you still have access to the fungi.

Regards,
Mike.

[Ken Burgess]

Originally Posted by Lancashire Lad

Hemimycena pseudogracilis might be a good contender.

I don't know this species but here is what the Basidiomycota checklist has to say about it:

"Notes: Not authentically British. A single collection named thus, from Scotland (North Ebudes: Isle of Skye) in herb. K, but in poor condition and requiring confirmation."

On this basis it wouldn't be top of my list of contenders.

Ken

[Lancashire Lad]

Originally Posted by Ken Burgess

I don't know this species but here is what the Basidiomycota checklist has to say about it:

"Notes: Not authentically British. A single collection named thus, from Scotland (North Ebudes: Isle of Skye) in herb. K, but in poor condition and requiring confirmation."

On this basis it wouldn't be top of my list of contenders.

Ken

Hi Ken, most odd!

I chanced upon this on page 155 of Jordan whilst looking for something else - and was immediately struck by the similarity of the photo there to that in Peter's original post above.

Checking Jordan's description of macro features & habitat, all seemed to fit perfectly, and Jordan finishes off by saying: -
"Occurence summer to autumn; frequent."

On the basis of your reply, I've just done a couple of quick web searches and it seems to be practically unknown in Britain - with very little info to be found at all

Regards,
Mike.

[Ken Burgess]

Hi Mike

There is a monograph published in 2004 by Antonin and Noordeloos which includes Hemimycena, which is likely to be the most authoritative source for Europe on this genus.

For Hemimycena gracilis it says:

"Ecology: Saprotrophic, on leaves and needles or in raw humus and small roots in deciduous and mixed forest in mountainous and subalpine regions.

Distribution: So far only known from Austria, Czech Republic, France, Italy and Norway."

These small white species need microscopy to tell them apart... and it would be easy to end up in the wrong part of the key if you weren't very familiar with them (as I know myself).

And I couldn't even be sure that this was the right genus from the photos.

Ken