Plasticity of form

“…  arching their necks out of rotted tree stumps, sucking life out of death. … the forest eats itself and lives forever.” – Barbara Kingsolver The Poisonwood Bible

For those that follow this blog you will know that tree stumps appear regularly. Because they are still rooted in the ground rising damp tends to keep them moist and usually guarantees a good show of fungi. These photos were taken by Glenda Leete in Wallaceville, Upper Hutt.

A stump with leathery brackets [photo Glenda Leete]

Glenda’s photos feature two leathery bracket fungi. But they also show the plasticity of form that bracket fungi have in the relationship to their substrate and their orientation to gravity. Ingold in his little book, which he calls an essay, on Dispersal in Fungi (1953).

Polyporus betulinus … produces its fruit-bodies on the trunks and limbs of dead trees … Gravity has a profound formative influence on the sporophore. The young fruit-body first appears erumpent as a small, undifferentiated spherical knob 2-3 cm. across. If this is on the main vertical trunk, it then grows out horizontally … to form a firm, more or less semi-circular structure, with a radius of 15-20 cm. and about 3 cm. thick, attached laterally to the trunk (Fig. 49A). If, however, the original spherical primordium is on the under side of an approximately horizontal branch, the fruit-body develops a roughly circular form with a central attachment to the tree (Fig. 49B). Fruit-bodies do not normally arise on the upper of a branch, but if a dead tree bearing primordia is felled, those on the recumbent trunk may continue their development. A primordium thus exposed on the upper surface of a fallen trunk grows out on one side only, more or less at right angles to the pull of gravity (Fig. 49C).

[from Ingold 1953]

It is, apparently, gravity also that determines the formation of the hymenial pores on the under surface of the fruit-body. These pores are at first very shallow, but throughout the life of the sporophore (8 months) they grow by means of an active zone around the mouth of each pore, so they gradually become longer. The direction of growth is conditioned by gravity so that the tubes produced are orientated precisely in the vertical direction. … In bracket polypores geotrophic growth achieves the desirable results of vertical hymenial surfaces, but if these, once formed, are slightly displaced from the vertical, there is no mechanism of readjustment in the pores.

[from Ingold 1953]

In Trametes gibbosa (Fig. 50), so common as a saprophyte on beech stumps, the morphogenesis of the sporophore is similar to that of Polyporus betulinus. Here the fruit-bodies arising on the more or less vertical surface of the trunk are of the bracket form, whilst those on the transversely cut surface of the stump are radially symmetrical with a broad central attachment.

These photos of Glenda’s shows tiers of brackets of Trametes versicolor growing on the vertical surface of the stump.

Trametes versicolor [photo Glenda Leete]

Trametes versicolor [photo Glenda Leete]

While this photo of the cut surface shows the brackets growing from a central attachment as a simple rosette.

Trametes versicolor [photo Glenda Leete]

If Trametes versicolor can have the appearance of a complex rosette if it colonises a narrow short stump as in the case of the photo, by Christine Harper, taken at Ohope.

Trametes versicolor [photo Christine Harper]

Just to complete this story some bracket fungi decompose the wood of dead trees and appear to sprout from the ground as a large rosette, in this case the size of a large cabbage. These photos where taken by Cary Moore in the Tararua Range. This could be Bondarzewia (berkeleyi ?) if it has distinctly amyloid and warted spores. Other possibilities are Ryvardenia campyla or Grifola.   [see Jerry’s comment below re Bondarzewia kirkii]

[photo Cary Moore]

[photo Cary Moore]

Glenda’s other fungus, Cerrena zonata, also formed tiers of brackets on the vertical surfaces of the stump.

Cerrena zonata [photo Glenda Leete]

Cerrena zonata [photo Glenda Leete]

Ingold also talked about pores and there orientation. There is a marked difference between the two species on Glenda’s stump. Trametes versicolor has pores on its under surface and it produces spores on cells lining the pores.

Trametes versicolor [photo Glenda Leete]

In contrast Cerrena zonata has spine, teeth and ridges on its under surface with the spore producing cells covering the surface of these.

Cerrena zonata [photo Glenda Leete]

Glenda’s last photos shows night visitors on a foraging trip to the stump.

Slugs and snails visiting [photo Glenda Leete]

PS: Peter Buchanan’s comment below reminded me of an illustration he published in the New Zealand Journal of Forestry Science in 1989. It showed all the forms that bracket type wood decay fungi can take.

 

References

Ingold CT 1953. Dispersal in Fungi, Oxford at the Clarendon Press.

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Nothing changes

Yesterday I gave a lecture, well at least an animated conversation, on fungi at Nga Manu Nature Reserve in Waikanae. This I will come back to in a later blog. At the end of the lecture I took possession of set of approximately 300 slides This was the E.F.A. Garner fungi collection and had been part of the Levin Flora Club slide library. A little digging found that the full name was the Levin Native Flora Club and I assume was the local botany society. Again, I’ll revisit this in a later blog.

When I got home I started to dig but got waylaid by discovering a website “New Zealand Regional Botanical Society Journals” that had databased all the journal/newsletter/bulletins of the Auckland, Rotorua, Wellington, Canterbury and Otago botanical societies. As I couldn’t help myself I searched the Wellington Botanical Society Bulletin for fungi and discovered small articles written by Greta Cone (AKA Greta Stevenson). I have blogged about Greta before as she laid the foundations for the study of agarics and boletes in New Zealand between the end of WWII and 1964. Here is a short item she wrote for the Wellington Botanical Society Bulletin 16: 8, August 1947:

A FUNGUS GARDEN.

The exhibit of larger fungi which were gathered by several members for display at our reception on May 19th made a very colourful ‘Fungus Garden’. The bright shades, beautiful shapes and great variety of these plants are surprising to many people. They are abundant in the bush only at the time of year when few folk are abroad for they fruit during autumn and winter. They grow very fast but last for a short time and so are easily missed.

Cortinarius porphyroideus, York Bay [photo Geoff Ridley]

Many of them like the brilliant purple puffball, Secotium porphyreum [Cortinarius porphyroideus = Thaxterogaster porphyreus] and the small dainty clubs, Clavaria spp. of all colours, may fruit half-hidden in the litter of the forest floor. When one has developed an eye for fungi one can spot these shy specimens and unearth them, often to the surprise of others who would walk past the same place seeing nothing particular. There is often something of a camouflage effect when the fungi are growing in the bush.

Clavaria zollingeri, Wellington Botanic Garden [photo Christopher Stephens]

When they are gathered up and many put together the bright conspicuous colours are striking, but in their natural haunts they harmonise with their surroundings. A few always shout their presence. The common puffball, Secotium erythrocephalum [Leratiomyces erythrocephalus = Weraroa erythrocephala], can seldom hide its brilliant red head, and the introduced scarlet toadstool, Amanita muscaria, is always a startling sight.

Leratiomyces erythrocephalus, Wellington Botanic Garden [photo Geoff Ridley]

Amanita muscaria, Wellington Botanic Garden [photo Geoff Ridley]

In order to get for our show some perfect specimens of this very decorative species, one of our members hunted long to find some which had not been handled and broken by someone else. She crawled into a dense thicket in the middle of a place where they were growing in abundance, collected the elegant toadstools and safely made away out with the fragile load which duly appeared in the fungus collection. Greta B. Cone.

What is interesting is that I talked about the same species in my lecture at Nga Manu. Nothing changes.

Otari Wilton’s Bush Annual Foray 28 April and 26 May 2019

The annual foray has proved to be so popular that this year we decided to run two walks a month apart. Below are the are the two photo lists of these walks.

April Foray

Parasola leiocephala [brown-umbrella inkcap] – Growing on wood chip in mulched garden. iNaturalistNZ link

Parasola leiocephala – brown-umbrella inkcap [photo Geoff Ridley]

Tylopilus brunneus [cocoa bolete] – Growing under black beech in the southern beech grove. There was some sign of bruising blue but the specimen was badly insect damaged. iNaturalistNZ link

Tylopilus brunneus – cocoa bolete [photo Geoff Ridley]

Agaricus sp. [a mushroom] – Growing in wood chip mulched garden under kanaka. iNaturalistNZ link

Agaricus sp. – a mushroom [photo Geoff Ridley]

Favolaschia calocera [orange poreconch] – Growing on fallen branch in the Fernery. Common throughout Otari. iNaturalistNZ link

Favolaschia calocera – orange poreconch [photo Geoff Ridley]

Leucoagaricus sp. [ a parasol] – Growing on wood chip mulched garden in the Fernery under a canopy of native broadleaf trees. It has a white spore print. iNaturalistNZ link

Leucoagaricus sp. – a parasol [photo Geoff Ridley]

Gymnopus sp. – Growing on a treefern log lining the track. Stipe cartilaginous. White spore print. iNaturalistNZ link

Gymnopus sp. [photo Geoff Ridley]

Crucibulum laeve [brown birdsnest] – Growing on wood chip in mulched garden. iNaturalistNZ link

Crucibulum laeve – brown birdsnest [photo Geoff Ridley]

Gymnopus possibly subpruinosus – Growing on wood chips in mulched garden. Cap is hygrophanous. Stipe cartilaginous but drying more solid looking. Spore print white. iNaturalistNZ link

Gymnopus possibly subpruinosus [photo Geoff Ridley

Cruentomycena viscidocruenta [ruby helmet] – Growing on wood chips in mulched garden. Usually found in this area of the garden. iNaturalistNZ link

Cruentomycena viscidocruenta – ruby helmet [photo Geoff Ridley]

Mycetinis curraniae [garlic shanklet] – Growing on the bark of a living totara in the native conifer grove on the north side of the visitor centre. Growing from ground level to about a metre above ground. I have seen this here on this tree every year for a decade. It smells of garlic when crushed between the palms of your hands. iNaturalistNZ link

Mycetinis curraniae – garlic shanklet [photo Geoff Ridley]

Leratiomyces ceres [scarlet roundhead] – Growing in garden mulched with wood chip. A common fungus in these gardens. iNaturalistNZ link

Leratiomyces ceres – scarlet roundhead [photo Geoff Ridley]

Lacrymaria asperospora [weeping widow] – Growing in a wood mulched garden. It has been fruiting annually in this area for the last few years. iNaturalistNZ link

Lacrymaria asperospora – weeping widow [photo Geoff Ridley]

Agaricus sp. [a mushroom] – This is a frequent find in the native conifer grove (rimu, totara, kauri) on the north side of the visitor centre. See previous observation notes and iNaturalistNZ link

Agaricus sp. – a mushroom [photo Geoff Ridley]

Stropharia sp. Hebeloma victoriensis – This was growing in the native conifer grove (rimu, totara and kauri) on the northside of the visitors centre. It’s tan to yellowish colour has made me doubtful about the identification. But it clearly has a pinkish/brown spore print and robust ring on the stipe which puts it in Hebeloma. Note: since writing this I have discussed what this might be and we have come to the conclusion that it sits close to Stropharia and is an undescribed species. iNaturalistNZ link

Hebeloma victoriensis [photo Geoff Ridley]

Hebeloma victoriensis – spore print [photo Geoff Ridley]

Amanita sp. [Noddy’s flycap or Gandalf’s flycap] – This is Amanita (Saproamanita) 2 Ridley. It was growing in the mulched native plant garden below the Cockayne Lookout. All the other collections from Otari have been in the native forest. The notable thing about this species is when you handle it the powdery volva remnants on the cap and stipe stick to your hands and to the paper you wrap it in for transport. You can see bits of it, from the cap margin, forming a ring around the white spore print. It’s also noticeable in the soil when digging the fruitbody up. iNaturalistNZ link 

Amanita sp. – Noddy’s flycap or Gandalf’s flycap [photo Geoff Ridley]

Amanita sp. – Noddy’s flycap or Gandalf’s flycap – spore print [photo Geoff Ridley]

May Foray

Fungal pontification [photo Peter Torr Smith]

Our second foray for 2019 found similar set of fungi. May has been quite dry so there was not a lot to found.

Amanita nothofagi [charcoal flycap] – Growing under black beech (Nothofagus solandri) which is not native to this site. We found a single desiccated and insect damaged fruitbody. iNaturalistNZ link

Amanita nothofagi – charcoal; flycap [photo Geoff Ridley]

Cortinarius sp. [a webcap] – Growing under black beech (Nothofagus solandri). A number of shiny, dark purple, immature fruitbodies, turning brown. Stipe and gills purple. iNaturalistNZ link

Cortinarius sp. – webcap [photo Geoff Ridley]

Cortinarius sp. – webcap [photo Geoff Ridley]

Agaricus sp. [a mushroom] – Growing on the edge of a gravel path under totara (Podocarpus totara). iNaturalistNZ link

Agaricus sp. – a mushroom [photo Geoff Ridley]

Agaricus sp. – a mushroom [photo Geoff Ridley]

Coprinellus micaceus [crumble inkcap] – Growing at the base of a living kowhai (Sophora sp.) It will be growing on dead wood or dead roots of the kowhai. iNaturalistNZ link

Coprinellus micaceus – crumble inkcap [photo Geoff Ridley]

Leratiomyces ceres [scarlet roundhead] – Growing on wood mulch in garden. This specimen was very desiccated. iNaturalistNZ link

Leratiomyces ceres – scarlet roundhead [photo Geoff Ridley]

Lycoperdon perlatum [a puffball] – Growing on wood mulch on the seep line at the base of a retaining wall. iNaturalistNZ link

Lycoperdon perlatum – puffball [photo Geoff Ridley]

Stropharia sp. [a roundhead] – Growing on wood mulch in a garden with podocarp species and kauri. This was fruiting in the same spot a month ago. See the discussion in the April walk. Initially I speculated it was Hebeloma victoriensis however, discussions with my colleague Jerry Cooper has brought me to an undescribed species of Stropharia. The ever-changing world of fungal taxonomy. iNaturalistNZ link

Stropharia sp. – roundhead [photo Geoff Ridley]

Lacrymaria asperospora [weeping widow] – Growing on the ground in leaf litter in the Fernery under broadleaf / podocarp forest. iNaturalistNZ link

Lacrymaria asperospora – weeping widow [photo Geoff Ridley

Armillaria novae-zelandiae [olive honeycap] – Growing on the dead stumps, fall tree trunks, untreated wood used to form step risers, and garden edges in the Fernery under broadleaf / podocarp forest. iNaturalistNZ link

Armillaria novae-zelandiae – olive honeycap [photo Geoff Ridley]

Coprinellus disseminatus [sociable inkcap] – Growing on a large piece of untreated wood along with Armillaria novae-zelandiae in the Fernery under broadleaf / podocarp forest. iNaturalistNZ link

Coprinellus disseminatus – sociable inkcap with olive honeycap [photo Geoff Ridley]

Lentinellus novae-zelandiae [bush shiitake] – Growing on a fallen hard wood trunk just behind the carpark. Bush shiitake has been fruiting on this log annually for the last 12 years. iNaturalistNZ link

Lentinellus novae-zelandiae – bush shiitake [photo Geoff Ridley]

Clitocybe nebularis [clouded funnelcap] – Growing in leaf litter in broadleaf podocarp forest on the Waterfall track below the Fernery. iNaturalistNZ link 

Clitocybe nebularis – clouded funnelcap [photo Geoff Ridley]

Clitocybe nebularis – clouded funnelcap [photo Geoff Ridley]

 

Ten Thousand and One e-photos

From the back of the cupboard [photo Geoff Ridley]

Not that long ago you would have a dedicated photographic device, a camera, of varying sophistication. You would then capture your image on 35mm film, either print or slide film, that came in rolls of 24 or 36 shots. When you had finished your roll of film, often at the most inconvenient time and place, and hopefully with another spare roll in your bag, off it would go for processing and printing. Film, processing, and printing cost money so you tried to be spare in the number of shots you took of each new find. With the added complication of not knowing if the shot had worked until the prints or slides came back from the shop. Then there was the housing of the prints, negatives, and slides. Albums for the best prints, negatives and not so good prints into shoe boxes at the back of a cupboard. At least slides came in there only little plastic boxes, or you could invest in big metal slide boxes or even plastic sleeves to hang in filing cabinets. Many of us still have big plastic storage box of photos and slides we are now desperately trying to digitise.

Smart phones to the rescue?

[graphic from mylio.com]

Miraculously, smart phones with inbuilt cameras arrived and practically killed the camera and film industry in a single blow. And with each generation of smart phones the cameras get better and better. Suddenly we can take multiple photos of a single specimen to get the one we need. I just cleared 550 photos off my phone taken over the last eight months and I’m conservative in what I take. I saw an estimate that by the end of 2017 world-wide we will have stored 4.7 trillion photos! (Just to be cynical most of them probably aren’t worth keeping e.g. cute cat photos and pictures of food that’s about to be eaten.) So, it’s time that I got on top of my fungi photos.

Last year I blogged about how I take photos of fungi. The main purpose of taking them is for research, developing local species lists and for illustrating this blog and other presentations that I do. However, I just store them on a hard drive with folders for each year and subfolders for the day the photos were taken. To find something I am reliant on what I have recorded in my blog or my memory. Not an optimal retrieval system for me personally, the material is not available to anyone else (unless I blogged it), and certainly not in a good state to pass on to the next generation.

My photo archive

An epiphany

During the Wellington Botanic Garden BioBlitz I had an epiphany. Tim Park was talking about how he used iNaturalist NZ (formally NatureWatch NZ) to store his photos. He uploaded his photos  recording time, place and any other details he wanted to include. Here they were available to anyone else to look at, comment on, and use within the limits of the copy right that Tim had assigned. As well as being available for the core purpose of iNaturalist NZ:

“iNaturalist NZ is a place where you can share what you see in nature, set up citizen science and community-based monitoring projects, meet other nature watchers, and learn about New Zealand’s natural history.”

So back to me. I joined up to iNaturalist NZ back in May 2013. I have made several attempts to get into it but it frustrated me and just made me cross for various reasons. But now I can see a use for it and I have put up all my photo based observation for 2019 and will continue to do so. Whether or not I will get all my stored photos up is another question.

My observations

To make it work for me, reducing my frustration considerably, I only look at two views regularly. The first is my own observations so, essentially the photos and associated information I am storing. The second is for fungi (specifically “Basidiomycota”) in my area (“Wellington, New Zealand”) and this lets me see what is happening in the Wellington region. If I want to know what records of a specific species are held in iNaturalist I would substitute Basidiomycota with the species name and the region with “New Zealand”. There are other ways of searching but these meet most of my needs.

Fungi of the Wellington Region

How to do it

So, as an example I have taken ten photos of a mushroom. Four of these were taken in the field and six at home to illustrate the mushrooms full morphology. The first thing I do is go through the photos and delete those that are badly lit or are out of focus (don’t keep them for just in case – chuck them). Generally, that leaves me with about four photos. It’s important to remember that your smart phone includes metadata in each photo. Specifically, the date and time the photo was taken, and the location as a latitude and longitude. So, when you upload the first photo in a new observation iNaturalist NZ will read this data and create a map. It’s important that you load the field photo first not those you took somewhere else or the map might show your back bedroom as the collection site rather than the piece of bush you were in.

Editing the observation

It’s also important to fill in the comments field. This should at a minimum include details of the vegetation in which you found the fungus. This might simple be “under silver birch”. If you don’t know what the vegetation is try and include some leaves of the dominant plant in your photo. Include also broad habitat description e.g. lawn, playing field, mulched garden, native bush, beech forest, broadleaf forest, pine plantation etc. Go look at my observations at https://inaturalist.nz/observations/geoffr

How the world sees your observation

Now go join, and start uploading. For those in New Zealand go to https://inaturalist.nz/ , for those outside New Zealand go to https://www.inaturalist.org/ 

If you have any questions email me. There is also a phone app which you might find useful but I dislike.

References

Here’s How Many Digital Photos Will Be Taken in 2017. 02.12.2016 Mylio.com

Nature, art, and commerce

When I finished my PhD I had this internal discussion about what I was. Was I scientist or a natural historian. At the end of the day it was politic to a scientist but I knew I was a natural historian. So, when I started this blog I took the opportunity to make it about the natural history of fungi and not just mycology. I was reminded about this over Christmas as I read of Alexander von Humbolt and Ernst Haeckel (see My book reading list), both natural historians, and how they saw art in science and science in art and that the two could not be separated. In Haeckel’s case, he went on to publish Art Forms in Nature, in ten instalments between 1899 and 1904, and it’s said that this publication was a source of inspiration for art nouveau designs as in the advertisement below. Haeckel’s scientific art work has been rediscovered and now features on calendars and greeting cards.

Discomedusae [by Ernst Haeckel]

beer advert [by Alphonse Mucha]

Having been made receptive to this idea by my reading I suddenly noticed the use of fungi in New Zealand “commercial art”.

Big Fresh

When the Big Fresh supermarket opened in Rotorua in the mid 1990 it was a big event. I remember taking my young sons to the opening and queueing to get in. You entered through fresh produce area and around the walls above head height were the animatronic fruit and vegetables singing and dancing to a backdrop of the Pink Terraces (I can’t find a picture of these). What brought this to the front of mind was my son getting me to watch a tongue-in-cheek documentary, Get it to Te Papa, where in episode two they go looking for the lost animatronic fruit and vegetables.

Advert [by The Spinoff]

They manage two find two sets of the them but the owners are reluctant to part with them. However, they final get the mushroom and take it to Te Papa to try and get it into the national museum as a national icon. Te Papa was reluctant to accept it. I must admit I don’t remember the mushroom but I loved seeing it make the journey to Te Papa.

Hayden Donnell and the alternate Te Papa [The Spinoff]

Looking at the two photos above you can see the two mushrooms are bespoke and were unique to each supermarket.

Watch the Big Fresh episode of Get it to Te Papa

Advert [The Spinoff]

Mama Nature

I go walking in the morning before work and I pass several bus stops with lit advertisements. I’d been passing this one every morning for a week when I stopped and looked at it properly. And there on the ground in front of Mama Nature where fungi! The ones on the left look like Russula but not certain about those on the right.

Bus stop hoarding [Keep NZ Beautiful]

Russula and other fungi [Keep NZ Beautiful]

This is an advertisement for Keep New Zealand Beautiful. Going to their website I got the whole advertisement which also included Morchella and some other fungi down by Mama Natures feet.

Russula, Morchella, and others [Keep NZ Beautiful]

Its nice to see fungi being used as something beautiful rather than something disgusting. As well as being used in a positive environmental message. Read about the campaign or watch Mama Nature.

Secrets of the Garden: Wellington Botanic Garden BioBlitz 2019

Last weekend we had a bioblitz as one of the many events this year to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the Wellington Botanic Garden. We have had a reasonably dry hot summer and last weekend featured the beginning of the colder and wetter weather of autumn. All the species observed were recorded at iNaturalistNZ in the project Wellington Botanic Garden BioBlitz 2019.

A false truffle (Rhizopogon sp.) – These false truffles grow in mycorrhizal association with pines, in this case Pinus radiata. False truffle spieces  are very difficult to tell apart. There specims had a little red so could be Rhizopogon rubescens. All the species of Rhizopogon in New Zealand have been introduced along with their mycorrhizal hosts.

Rhizopogon sp. [photo Geoff Ridley]

Cocoa boletus (Tylopilus brunneus) – This is a native bolete and here in the gardens is in mycorrhizal associated with Nothofagus menziesii and Kunzea ericoides. The pores bruise blue and quickly turn grey as does the tissue in the stipe when it is cut.

Tylopilus brunneus [photo Geoff Ridley]

Tylopilus brunneus [photo Geoff Ridley]

A fibrecap (Inocybe sp.) – We have two sets of Inocybe species in New Zealand. Those that are native and in mycorrhizal association with Nothofagus, Leptopsermum and Kunzea. And those exotic species in association with introduced species such us Pinus. These are probably the latter growing within the root zone of Pinus radiata, although this is confused by the presence of some young kanaka.

Inocybe sp. [photo Alison Stringer]

Inocybe sp. [photo Geoff Ridley]

Garlic shanklet (Mycetinis curraniae) – This little native fungus is found growing usually on the bark of living trees. The photo below is totara bark (Podocarpus totara). I also found it growing on kanaka bark (Kunzea ericoides). If you crush a fruitbody between the palms of your hands you should be able to smell garlic.

Mycetinis curraniae [photo Geoff Ridley]

Scarlet flycap (Amanita muscaria) – The king of our exotic species scarlet flycap is mycorrhizal and in this case growing with blue Atlas cedar (Cedrus libani subsp. atlantica ‘Glauca’).

Amanita muscaria [photo Geoff Ridley]

Red-footed bolete (Xerocomellus sp.) – This is an exotic species and in this case while apparently growing amongst native broadleaf regen it is clearly within the root zone of a large old Pinus radiata. The photos below show the blue to gray bruising in the cut stipe tissue and a little above the pores.

Xercomellus sp. [photo Geoff Ridley]

Xercomellus sp. [photo Geoff Ridley]

Xercomellus sp. showing gray-blue staining [photo Geoff Ridley]

I don’t know what this little, white spored, wood decay fungus is? I’m assuming at this stage it is native as it was growing on a fallen rotten branch in  broadleaf  regen. I will continue to chase this one.

Unknown species of wood decay fungi [photo Geoff Ridley]

Unknown species of wood decay fungi [photo Geoff Ridley]

Orange poreconch (Favolsachia calocera) – Ubiquitous. It was growing on fallen branches under broadleaf regen.

Favolsachia calocera [photo Geoff Ridley]

Salmon waxgill  (Hygrophorus salmonipes) – I’m not certain of the identification of this little waxgill but given the pinkish colouring when I photographed it away from bright light I’m suggesting it might be a salmon waxgill. It was growing in the leaflitter under broadleaf regen.

Hygrophorus salmonipes [photo Geoff Ridley]

Hygrophorus salmonipes [photo Geoff Ridley]

Ruby helmet (Cruentomycena viscidocruenta) – These ruby helmets were growing about 20cm from the salmon waxgills above and again under broadleaf regen..

Cruentomycena viscidicruenta [photo Geoff Ridley]

Charcoal flycap (Amanita nothofagi) – The native charcoal flycap was growing within the root zone of its mycorrhizal associate kanaka (Kunzea ericoides).

Amanita nothofagi [photo Geoff Ridley]

Amanita nothofagi [photo Geoff Ridley]

Tree swordbelt (Cyclocybe parasitica) – The tree swordbelt was common across the Garden growing on living trees in the case kohekohe (Dysoxylum spectabile).

Cyclocybe parasitica [photo Geoff Ridley]

Yellow flycap (Amanita junquillea) – Since this species was first found in Wellington in 2014 it has rapidly spread across the city. This is the first time I have seen it in the pine grove in the Garden and these are the oldest pine plantings in New Zealand.

Amanita junquillea [photo Geoff Ridley

Amanita junquillea [photo Geoff Ridley

Clitocybula sp. – This is a best guess for this little wood decay fungus. It was collected by David Sole from under broadleaf regen. What I like about this one is it shows you can discover potentially new species less than half a kilometre from parliament!

Clitocybula sp. [photo Geoff Ridley]

Clitocybula sp. [photo Geoff Ridley]

Downy milkcap (Lactarius pubescens) – An exotic mycorrhizal species associated with silver birch (Betula pendula).

Lactarius pubescens [photo Geoff Ridley]

A puffball (Scleroderma sp.) – These are common in cultivated garden throughout the Garden.Here they are growing in a mulched and irrigated shrubbery.

Scleroderma sp. [phot Geoff Ridley]

Pine knight (Tricholoma batschii) – The exotic red-brown Tricholoma under pines has had many names attributed to it since the 1960s. Currently it is being attributed to Tricholoma batchii – watch this space.

Tricholoma batchii [photo Geoff Ridley]

Black-olive bolete (Phlebopus portentosus) – Not strictly part of the Bioblitz this bolete grows in the lower section of the  Bolton Street Cemetery which is contiguous with the Garden. The black-olive bolete is associated here with some very big old pines (Pinus radiata).

Phlebopus portentosus [photo Geoff Ridley]

Phlebopus portentosus [photo Geoff Ridley]

If you want to read more comments about these species please check the species index on the left hand side of the screen which has links to the appropriate blogs.

 

 

 

 

Amanita on the move

Back in May of 2014, I blogged about a new yellow Amanita found under pines at Otari Wilton’s Bush. At the time I referred it to the North American species Amanita gemmata var. exannulata and noted that this is a working name rather than a real name.

So what’s happened since then? If we look at the name Amanita gemmata, which is a European and not a North American name, it was reviewed by Geoff Kibby in early 2016 and he rejected the “gemmata” and made it a synonym of Amanita muscaria. That meant that the next legitimately published name for this species is Amanita junquillea. So if any of you are using NatureWatchNZ [which has in the last month become iNaturalistNZ] then this is the name being used there.

Amanita junquillea from under Douglas-fir, Pukaha Mt Bruce, 16.06.2016 [photo Barbara Paulus]

Is it the right name? If the New Zealand population is derived from western North America, as I suggested, it depends whether this is the same as the European Amanita junquillea. If not then it will eventually get a new name. Currently, in western North America these names are used for this yellow species or species complex:

• Amanita gemmata
• Amanita gemmata var. exannulata
• Amanita breckonii
• Amanita pseudobreckonii

It will be interesting to see what name is eventually accepted. Just out of interest Amanita breckonii was originally described from California from Pinus radiata near sea level; all but one of the New Zealand collections are from under Pinus radiata.

While cruising the online literature I found the same Amanita being reported from under Pinus radiata and eucalypts in Chile [Austral Fungi, 2007]. In Chile, it was originally called Amanita gemmata but later renamed Amanita toxica. It clearly fits the description of Amanita breckonii.

Collection sites of Amanita junquillea 2014-2018 [from iNaturalistNZ]

In the meantime here in New Zealand, this Amanita has been collected from a couple of sites in the southern North Island but with the majority of collections from around greater Wellington [see the maps reproduced from iNaturalistNZ].

Collection sites of Amanita junquillea, greater Wellington area, 2014-2018 [from iNaturalistNZ] Note the blue star is the first known collection at Otari Wilton’s Bush

As I said above all bur one have been collected from under Pinus radiata with the outlier from under Douglas-fir [Pseudotsuga menziesii] at Pukaha Mt Bruce, although there may have been pines nearby.

Amanita junquillea from under Douglas-fir, Pukaha Mt Bruce, 16.06.2016 [photo Barbara Paulus]

It is hard to explain this distribution of collections of the past four years and with absolutely no record of it in New Zealand before this time, despite Amanita being well documented here. All of the specimens have been found through citizen science. Given the concentration of citizen scientists in Wellington, the lack of collections between Wellington on the most northerly three collections may just represent the lack of collectors rather than a lack of Amanita fruitbodies.

 So keep looking so that we can record this species spread in New Zealand and in the meantime we will wait for the western North American’s to resolve the name.

 PS: One collection in Auckland city has been tentatively identified as Amanita junquillea. However, it was found under oak (Quercus robur) so is more likely to be Amanita phalloides which is usually found under oaks in Auckland.

Amanita junquillea or Amanita phalloides? [photo Marley Ford]