Field Trip to Keston Common on 19th October 2013

Led by Bill Welch.

Black Bulgar, Bulgaria inquinans, on Keston Common.

It was a wet day after a rainy week when ten of us arrived at Keston Common to look for fungi. I am no expert, so I was pleased to see at least three people who knew a lot more about them than I do. I was armed with a species list put together recently by a different group, and I had looked around a few days earlier to assure myself that there would be plenty to see.

Amanita rubescens var. annulosulphurea on Keston Common.

We started by looking at a felled Beech north of the car park. It was surrounded by decaying clumps of Giant Polypore, Meripilus giganteus. It must have been felled as a precaution, because this fungus causes a white rot which will weaken and kill a tree.

Along the fallen trunk was a good crop of Black Bulgar, Bulgaria inquinans, glistening in the moist air. The group were already looking around and turning up other fungi, including a Blusher, Amanita rubescens.

We then set off along a low southerly path through mixed deciduous woodland. The banks to either side provided many interesting specimens, some wholesome, some very poisonous. We did well for Amanitas, and a Death Cap, Amanita phalloides, was the first to be found. Some False Death Caps, Amanita citrina, turned up later, and we also saw Tawny Grisettes, Amanita fulva. Irene Palmer found a very pretty variety of the Blusher, Amanita rubescens var. annulosulphurea.

Russula ochroleuca with a complete miniature growing out of the main cap.
Keston Common, 19 October 2013.

Russulas and Lactarius were abundant. Lactarius species typically bleed white "milk" from any damage, so it was interesting to see among them Lactarius chrysorrheus, which bleeds a yellow fluid. Lactarius camphoratus was identified by its charateristic smell of curry.

Probably the most unusual sighting of the day was a specimen of Russula ochroleuca with a complete miniature growing out of the main cap; not a parasite, but an extension of the same fungus. This is a rarity.

Ear Pick Fungus, Auriscalpium vulgare, on a Scots Pine cone. Keston Common.

Another young Russula, species undetermined, looked like a Disney scene, growing in a niche in a fallen Silver Birch trunk. It's at the bottom of this page.

We turned onto an even lower and darker path, and found a different mix of species. There were two darker Russulas; some of the Charcoal Burner, Russula cyanoxantha, and a very large and very much blackened specimen of Russula nigricans, whose gills start out white and darken with damage or age. Ronnie Haar spotted a specimen of the Stinkhorn, Phallus impudicus, which had lost all its characteristic brown gleba to rain and invertebrates.

Irene Palmer, that excellent forager, found a pine cone with two specimens of the Ear Pick Fungus, Auriscalpium vulgare, a small thing that has teeth rather than gills.

Time was moving on, so we turned back up the slope, through some Scots Pines where there were some clumps of Lactarius rufus, a species associated with conifers. At the top, the paths along the edge of the heath were lined with deadwood, and on some of it was the interesting Lenzites betulinus, a polypore whose underside is shaped to resemble gills.

This path led us back to steps down to the car park, completing a fascinating foray. Five minutes after we departed, the rain poured down, so our timing was spot on. Thanks to all who helped with identifications, especially Tom Maxwell; and to Irene Palmer for filling in some gaps in my species list.

Interested persons can download that species list here: Keston Common fungus species list 2013.10.19 - though I know it is far from being a compete record of the site.