Essex Field Club on Facebook

Visit Our Centre

EFC Centre at Wat Tyler Country ParkOur centre is available for visits on a pre-booked basis on Wednesdays between 10am - 4pm. The Club’s activities and displays are also usually open to the public on the first Saturday of the month 11am - 4pm.

About us


Video about the Club Essex Field Club video

registered charity
no 1113963
HLF Logo A-Z Page Index

Your Forum

This forum has now been more or less replaced by the Club's Facebook page at
Essex Field Club on Facebook




The weblog below is for naturalists to use to report interesting sightings, ask questions, report on field meetings and generally post pictures and any information or questions generally relevant in some way to the wildlife and geology of Essex. You will need to register and be logged-on to post to the forum, and you need to upload pictures first, for use in posts. Find out more


Sat 12th May 2012 18:35 by Graham Smith
Sorry Mary!
Mary - having accompanied you on many a foray I have developed a healthy respect for your knowledge of 'little brown jobs' but this one, I admit, was going a bit far! Trouble is, I am a mycological coward and am apt to view certain groups as beyond my ken rather than as a challenge. Anyway, the following is a close up of the same fungi taken two days later, the pink blobs having matured to a less showy grey-brown. Each fruit body is up to 7mm across and as you can see are often fused together. They have not only changed colour but have gradually hardened to the touch and are now rubbery rather than soft with an olive grey spore mass. A Hypoxylon possibly? Or even a Myxomycetes? Anyway, I have now dried some specimens and will bring them along to the first of the Club's autumn forays. It is bound to be bone dry by then and we will need something to look at!

Ascomycetes Sp 2 Copyright: Graham Smith

It is with a certain degree of trepidation that I offer another picture for you to look at - a slime mould possibly. It was growing from the root plate of a long dead and toppled Sweet Chestnut stool at Stoneymore Wood, Mill Green this week. It was quite large - around 4-5 cm across - and shaped like a shallow bowl. Impossible to collect, of course, without a proper container as it was slimy and fragile.

Slime Mould sp Copyright: Graham Smith

Finally, to one I was brave enough to tackle. It was growing on the same wood chip/sawdust mix as the pink blobs and played out in Brian Spooner's updated key on CABI as Peziza varia, which appears to be common on this kind of substrate, the map showing lots of records from the London/Essex area. Have kept a specimen of this as well, which I hope will be one of the first fungi to deposited at our new HQ as soon as the collections are up and running.

Peziza varia Copyright: Graham Smith

link
 

Archives:

May 2020
Aug 2019
Jan 2019
Sep 2018
Jul 2016
Oct 2015
Jul 2015
May 2015
Apr 2015
Mar 2015
Feb 2015
Jan 2015
Dec 2014
Oct 2014
Sep 2014
Aug 2014
Jul 2014
May 2014
Apr 2014
Mar 2014
Feb 2014
Jan 2014
Dec 2013
Nov 2013
Sep 2013
Aug 2013
Jul 2013
Jun 2013
May 2013
Apr 2013
Mar 2013
Feb 2013
Jan 2013
Dec 2012
Nov 2012
Oct 2012
Sep 2012
Aug 2012
Jul 2012
Jun 2012
May 2012
Apr 2012
Mar 2012
Feb 2012
Jan 2012
Dec 2011
Nov 2011
Oct 2011
Sep 2011
Aug 2011
Jul 2011
Jun 2011
May 2011
Apr 2011
Mar 2011
Feb 2011
Jan 2011
Dec 2010
Nov 2010
Oct 2010
Sep 2010
Aug 2010
Jul 2010
Jun 2010
May 2010
Apr 2010
Mar 2010
Feb 2010
Nov 2009
Oct 2009
Aug 2009
Jul 2009
Jun 2009
May 2009
Apr 2009
Mar 2009
Feb 2009
Jan 2009
Nov 2008
Oct 2008
Sep 2008
Aug 2008
Jul 2008
Jun 2008
May 2008
Apr 2008
Mar 2008
Feb 2008
Jan 2008
Dec 2007
Nov 2007

current posts