Hillier Gardens
Sun 9 May 2010
Pluteus romellii
Photo © Paul Hugill
Field event ID HF1002
OS Grid areas: SU3723
Weather: In addition to the continuing dry weather the temperature dropped again over the last week with night temperatures near freezing.
New Records:
New to HFRG: Nectria fuckeliana, Postia balsamea
Report: Following a recent successful autumn foray to Hillier Gardens it was decided to try a spring visit. In view of the recent dry and now cold weather we did not hold out much hope for a fruitful foray. Our fears were unfortunately born out and we had to work hard to find the records we did. Every cloud, including the dark and cold ones, turns out to have a silver lining and we were delighted to see some St Georges mushrooms even if they were past their sell by date. A search of the bluebells was rewarded by finding Uromyces muscari (bluebell rust) which was not reported the previous week when visiting 'Bluebell wood'!
Just before lunch Eric moved a couple of large logs and found a soft yellow brown bracket that had everyone, including Alan, scratching their heads for inspiration. Several phones calls, emails and searching by Alan and Stuart had not tracked down a likely suspect and the specimen was dispatched to Martyn Ainsworth at Kew to investigate. After a couple of hours of microscopic searching Martyn found some cystidia, to the embarrassment of the Hampshire lads and declared the specimen to be Postia balsamea. No one ever said polypores were easy. There is one previous record for VC11 from Exbury Gardens determined by Nick Legon.
Species list: Annulohypoxylon multiforme, Bjerkandera adusta, Bolbitius titubans var. titubans, Botryobasidium subcoronatum, Calocybe gambosa, Chloroscypha cryptomeriae, Cylindrobasidium laeve, Daedaleopsis confragosa, Daldinia concentrica, Diatrypella quercina, Dichomitus campestris, Fuligo septica var. septica, Ganoderma australe, Hypholoma fasciculare var. fasciculare, Leptosphaeria acuta, Mycena acicula, Nectria fuckeliana, Peniophora quercina, Phlebiopsis gigantea, Physalacria cryptomeriae, Pluteus romellii, Postia balsamea, Psathyrella spadiceogrisea, Reticularia lycoperdon, Schizopora paradoxa, Skeletocutis amorpha, Stereum hirsutum, Trametes versicolor, Uromyces muscari