Low Moor and Oakenshaw Wildlife

On Saturday the 14th of October the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust held our annual Fungi walk at Raw Nook NR Low Moor Bradford.

It was lead by fungi expert Kat Woolly with Jess, Sarah Goldsmith and Peter Gurney.

Thankfully the weather was fine however, as I walked through RN to meet Kat I didn’t see too many fungi and commented to Kat ‘ There may not be many fungi about ‘

BIG MISTAKE..MARTYN!

As we had only been in the meadow a few minutes when an excited Kat found a Snowy Waxcap ( A site first). As always Kat explained to the group about it’s identification and status.

For those that know RN, within the meadow is our ‘Hidden hideaway’ which an dark area surrounded by Hazel and Willow shrubs and is excellent for fungi and we soon found our first fungi a White saddle Helvella crispa

I was keeping the notes and recorded the species found and it wasn’t long before another new species appeared ‘ Jelly Rot’

My list quickly got up to 15 as we moved to the meadow area near to the railway where there is small group of Scots Pines.

We all started to search this area when suddenly Jess let out a rather excited shout!

We all gathered round as she explained that she had found an Earpick Fungus ( Again another new species) which grows on conifer litter and conifer cones, so searching the pines proved successful.

We then walked towards the pond area for lunch finding many common fungi on the way.

What was interesting for the group was learning about the different smells some fungi have from Kat.

A great example of this was the Coconut Milkcap which as you have guessed smell exactly like a coconut! and is regular at the site.

So we had a short lunch by the pond as like always at Raw Nook when searching for fungi…time just goes!

We now headed to the Oak and meadow area at the top of the site to look for Waxcaps but sadly there were few about. However, Peter found a rather strange Puffball which turned out to be a Pestle Puffball Lycoperdon excipuliforme which again was a new species for the site.

As time was catching up we started to walk back but taking a different path.

Whilst more common species were recorded there was still excitement in the air.

As more new species were found like Fool’s Funnel and Penny bun.

Before the start of the walk our fungi species list was 109.

We recorded 43 species on the day of which 13 were new for the site As below.

1. Jelly Rot Fungus- Phlebia tremellosa
2. Snowy Waxcap Cuphopphyllus virgineus
3. Earpick Fungus Auriscalpium vulgare
4. White Fibrecap Inocybe geophylla
5. Purple Jellydisc Ascocoryne sarcoides
6. Sulpher Knight Tricholoma sulphureum
7. Green Elfcup Chlorociboria aeruginascens 
8. Scarletina Neoboletus luridiformis
9. Penny bun Boletus edulis 
10. Pestle Puffball Lycoperdon excipuliforme
11. Brown Birch Bolete Leccinum scabrum
12. Grisette Amanita vaginata
13. Fools Funnel Clitocybe rivulosa 

However, there was one more excellent surprise for the group when hawk eye Sarah Goldsmith found a small greenish piece of wood.

This was identified by Jess as Green Elfcup Chlorociboria aeruginascens.

Then a further search and a bigger piece of wood was found showing the individual fruit bodies.

So all in all it was an excellent walk and for me 13 new species were found bringing our total to 122 different species of fungi recorded.

We would like to thank Kat, Jess, Peter and Sarah at Yorkshire Wildlife Trust for all their ID skills and organising this wonderful annual event.