Last year I wrote about some of the specialised sand dune fungi I had seen at Holkham in North Norfolk. This autumn has been one of the best I’ve known for fungi, with plentiful rainfall starting in late September and continuing into November.

Earlier this week my friend Sarah and I visited Holme Dunes, a beautiful Norfolk Wildlife Trust nature reserve at Holme-next-the-Sea, in the north-west corner of Norfolk. It’s a place I’ve visited in the winter to see birds, but this time our mission was to see more fungi, some of them particularly associated with sand dunes.

Here are some of the highlights of our trip:

Winter Stalkball, Tulostoma brumale

We found Winter Stalkball, Tulostoma brumale, an exquisite little stalked puffball, no more than 3 centimetres (1.2 inches) tall, growing amongst mosses in the dunes. It’s one of those fungi where you spot a single specimen and then find a whole lot more nearby.

The First Nature website recommends looking in dune slacks just behind the first stable sand dune ridges, and this was exactly where we found them. Tulostoma brumale is described by Sterry and Hughes as a “distinctive lollipop-shaped puffball”, and by the First Nature website as “strange, almost other-worldly little fungi”. Both descriptions are very apt. The round head of the lollipop contains masses of spores, which are released through the hole at the top.

In spite of its exotic appearance, the Winter Stalkball is closely related to more familiar fungi such as Parasols (Macrolepiota procera) and the cultivated mushroom (Agaricus bisporus).

The fruit bodies of Winter Stalkballs persist throughout winter, into early spring. Winter Stalkballs are specialists of calcareous dunes but they can also grow on downland sites away from the coast or even on old walls with lime mortar. The NBN Atlas lists 284 records for the British Isles, mostly in southern England.

The specific name, brumale, means “of winter” and Tulostoma means “woolly club”.

Fomitiporia hippophaeicola

Formerly known as Phellinus hippophaeicola, this is a bracket fungus that grows on older, living branches of Sea Buckthorn, Hippophae rhamnoides.

The host plant is easy to recognise, a spiny bush with narrow lanceolate leaves with a silvery-green upper surface. Female plants are covered by a mass of distinctive orange berries in the autumn, which begin to bleach to white in early winter.

Sea Buckthorn, Hippophae rhamnoides

The fruiting body of Fomitiporia hippophaeicola is a semicircular, circular or hoof-shaped bracket. The upper surface is fawn, yellowish or rust brown with a velvety texture, becoming smoother and greyer with age. The underside is reddish brown, with  fine, rounded pores.

Fomitiporia hippophaeicola on Sea Buckthorn.

Obligingly, the brackets were growing about four feet (1.2 metres) off the ground, so were easy to photograph.

This is not a very common fungus and is restricted to older Sea Buckthorn bushes in coastal areas, including Norfolk, Lincolnshire, the Edinbugh area, South Wales and a few places on the south coast of England.

Collared Earthstar, Geastrum triplex

In contrast to the rare and small Tiny and Dwarf Earthstars I wrote about last October, the Collared Earthstar is not a dune specialist. It one of our commonest species of Geastrum. Nonetheless, it is a magnificent sight and I’m always glad to see it.

Collared Earthstar, Geastrum triplex

Young specimens of Geastrum triplex are onion-shaped, then the outer layer of the fruit body splits into five to seven rays that are 5 – 11cm across when fully open. The Collared Earthstar’s flesh is creamy buff, maturing to brown and cracking with age.

It can be found on free-draining soils rich in humus, under deciduous or coniferous trees and even on woodchip, including in gardens. The specimens we found were growing near pine trees.

Blackening Waxcap, Hygrocybe conica

Waxcap fungi, which I wrote about in November 2013, are found in “unimproved” grassland (which has not been damaged by the application of artificial fertilisers). The Blackening Waxcap is one of the commonest species, with nearly 7000 records in the NBN Atlas. It isn’t just confined to dunes – we have it in Earlham Cemetery in Norwich.

Blackening Waxcaps, Hygrocybe conica

The fruit body is red, orange or yellow when young, but older specimens gradually turn black and can persist for many weeks. The caps vary in shape, but start off conical, hence the specific name, conica. The old specimens in my photograph are totally black but still have a characteristic umbo (pointed dome) at the top.

Grey Knight, Tricholoma terreum

Underneath the pine trees we found some handsome fungi with grey, felty caps and greyish white stipes. These were Grey Knights, Tricholoma terreum.

Grey Knights, Tricholoma terreum

They usually occur in groups and like calcareous to neutral soil where pines are growing.  The specific name terreum means “earth”, presumably referring to the colour of the cap. There are over a thousand records of this fungus in the NBN Atlas.

References

As with my previous post about Sand Dune Fungi, there is not that much information on the internet about these fungi, compared to some of the subjects I have written about. I have relied heavily on the First Nature website for much of the information and the NBN Atlas website for details of distribution in the British Isles. Other sources include Wikipedia and, as ever, the excellent book “Collins Complete Guide to British Mushrooms & Toadstools” by Paul Sterry and Barry Hughes (Harper Collins 2009).