ID help please.

[hillrover]

Photographs taken this morning on open grassland in Wensleydale.

1. I'm guessing some kind of waxcap - Hygrocybe persistens seems the closest look-a-like in the books.
Unfortunately it was the only one I found so I didn't want to destroy it - so no spore print and no gill picture.
It was growing on Rock Rose, a woody plant that grows tight to the ground.
Alas any identifiable smell was masked by the long dead rabbit lying 2 feet away!!




2. Tiny funnel shape. 3cm across the cap and the same high.
Grows in this field each year. Each year I fail to identify it!!



Grateful for any help.

Christine

[Chris Yeates]

Originally Posted by hillrover

Photographs taken this morning on open grassland in Wensleydale.. . . . Tiny funnel shape. 3cm across the cap and the same high.
Grows in this field each year. Each year I fail to identify it!!



Grateful for any help.

Christine

hi Christine

interesting this one . . . . was it also in rockrose/grassland? (which is a very interesting habitat in itself - see When is a tree not a tree?) I collected this in a similar habitat above Carperby (so again in Wensleydale) I didn't pursue it further; I have the material in my herbarium and will give it another go - looks very like it could be the same thing - images taken quickly using a scanner ( I collected a lot of material that day - it was on a YNU meeting - in fact I see I already have posted these images - oh well):



best wishes

Chris

[NickCantle]

Definitely a Clitocybe isn't it Chris? I see what I can only assume is the same species quite often around here.

[hillrover]

Hi Chris

It was in the same area where a lot of rock rose grows, but these little fungi seem to prefer the open grass.
The "waxcap?", on the other hand, was pushing up through the rock rose. The other plant that grows profusely in the same field is a wild herb which I think is sage.

The area is about 5 miles east of Carperby and, if your find was above Carperby, it would be on the same underlying rock etc.
I am willing to be more specific if it isn't against the rules - can give you directions and a grid ref.

Thanks for your reply.

Christine

PS. After reading your interesting link, you may already know the site. Near a quarry.

[Ken Burgess]

I think the waxcap is Hygrocybe acutoconica, which is the latest name for H. persistens. Waxcaps are not thought to be ectomycorrhizal, so it will not have been actually growing with the rockrose. (Some researchers have postulated that some species of Hygrocybe may be mycorrhizal with grass species but I have not seen this confirmed.)

The funnels in Christine and Chris's photos are are in the group with non-hygrophanous, somewhat velvety cap surfaces (technically the cap cuticle is a trichoderm) which are now placed in the genus Infundibulicybe. This is a group which has all the classic problems that Chris hates for larger fungi in that the species seem to be separated at macroscopic level on nuances of colour, smell or other imprecise differences, while microscopic characters overlap considerably.

There seem to be only three options for the specimens in both sets of photos: I. gibba, I. costata or I. squamulosa. Although these tend to be woodland species, they are saprobic, so there is no reason why they could not be found in this type of grassland. Dried specimens of I. costata should show a brown reaction with 5% KOH, whereas the other two species would not. I costata also tends to have a ribbed (or costate) margin to the cap (possible hints of this in Christine's photo?) and the stem colour tends to be darker, matching the cap colour. Christine's specimen also appears to show a somewhat scaly cap surface, possibly suggesting I. squamulosa. So I don't think a definitive answer is possible from macroscopic appearance. Whether microscopy would help is also a moot question.

Ken

[hillrover]

Hi Ken

Thanks for your reply, both interesting and informative.
I needed to study it carefully but it was well worth the effort.

Christine

[hillrover]

Chris

After reading your thread on "When is a tree not a tree" I began to attempt the id on some other fungi that were found in the same place/same time. They included this one:



Which seems to fit bill for Cortinarius anomalus. As you can see it is pushing up through a large patch of rock rose. It wasn't the most numerous fungus on the site but there were several patches of it.

Now having sorted that one out - hopefully - I'll move on to the others

Christine