One of Britain’s rarest fungi
So you think it doesn’t look like much? I think it looks fabulous. It’s growing in the short grass around a car park on Dartmoor. It’s the Date Waxcap, Hygrocybe spadicea, one of Britain’s rarest fungi. It’s classified as a vulnerable species, so the Date Waxcap is a priority species under the UK Biodiversity Action Plan, and is included in English Nature’s Species Recovery Programme. In the UK it is scattered in tiny populations across parts of Wales, Cumberland, Shropshire, Devon and the island of Colonsay in the Hebrides. It’s easy to kill by stopping grazing which removes its food, applying artificial fertiliser which poisons it or by ploughing, which cuts it to ribbons.
It’s so special, it’s even got its own distribution map in the National Biodiversity Network here.
Since it’s so rare, maybe I should have taken a better photograph of it?
More Fungi
The Giant Polypore The Giant Polypore, Meripilus giganteus, is giant and has many pores on its underside. It's also called the Black-Staining Polypore… read more
Penny Buns It's wet again and my trousers are soaking after lying in a wet field photographing these marvellous Penny Buns, Ceps,… read more
The Spectacular Rustgill It's that season again. There are dense clusters of Spectacular Rustgills in this woodland. In the light they are a… read more
Ash downfall Here's a Cramp Ball. There are hundreds of them here. They love dead or dying Ash trees. I've been taking… read more
St George’s Mushrooms Last week I said we should be getting St George's Mushrooms soon. This week, they arrived. By the side of… read more
Dacrymyces deliquescens There's a tiny orange fungus on this wet rotting wood. I recognise it from my childhood. It can only be… read more
Velvet-stemmed Little Flame December is the best time to find Velvet Shank fungus, Flammulina velutipes. It's a species I found as a child:… read more
You can set your calendar by its appearance Hypholoma fasciculare is a great name for a fungus. read more
Hare’s Foot Inkcap There's a Hare's Foot Inkcap, Coprinopsis lagopus, in our dog-walking field in Somerset. I only have my phone with me,… read more