Last month I looked at five fungi from my local streets in Norwich. But I’ve seen plenty more fungi by bike and here is a selection of five more from this summer and autumn, all seen within ten miles of home.
Ringed Milkcap, Lactarius circellatus
In early August Ringed Milkcaps, Lactarius circellatus, appeared in their usual spot under Hornbeam trees in Earlham Cemetery.
Ringed Milkcaps were found in Norfolk Wildlife Trust’s Ashwellthorpe Lower Wood in the 1990s so I decided to cycle out to re-find them. I succeeded in my quest.
Better still, I found Ringed Milkcaps at a new site, growing under Common Hornbeams on a road verge on my way out to the wood.
Ringed Milkcap, Lactarius circellatus. Earlham Cemetery, Norwich, 8th August 2023.
Ringed Milkcaps have depressed caps with grey-brown rings, and the fairly crowded gills start pale cream and become pinkish buff with age. They smell fruity and their milk is rather abundant and white, turning slowly yellowish. The milk tastes acrid and leaves a bitter taste at the back of the tongue (note 1). The fungus isn’t considered edible.
Milkcaps form mycorrhizal relationships with trees, providing water and minerals for the tree in exchange for carbon manufactured by photosynthesis.
Lactarius circellatus forms a mycorrhizal relationship with Common Hornbeam, Carpinus betulus (note 2).
Common Hornbeam is native in south-east England, but has been widely planted elsewhere in the British Isles. Lactarius circellatus is not particularly common, with only nine records in Norfolk to the end of 2022. Ashwellthorpe Lower Wood is full of Common Hornbeams but in August I only found Ringed Milkcap in a couple of places. Similarly, although there were ten (planted) Common Hornbeam trees on the verge, I only found the fungi underneath one tree.
Ringed Milkcap, Lactarius circellatus, under a Common Hornbeam on a road verge. 10th August 2023.
Iodine Bolete, Hemileccinum impolitum
We were cycling home from a trip to South Norfolk at the end of September when Vanna spotted a large bolete growing on a road verge. We stopped to take a look and found two more, including a smaller, younger specimen which we took home to identify (note 3). We had found our first Iodine Boletes, Hemileccinum impolitum (formerly Boletus impolitus).
Iodine Boletes form a mycorrhizal relationship with a variety of broadleaved trees – ours were near an English oak (Quercus robur).
Iodine Bolete, Hemileccinum impolitum. 30th September 2023.
Unlike many of its relatives, the Iodine Bolete doesn’t change colour when cut or bruised. The cap is a felty, greyish beige and the pores are lemon yellow. (“Impolitum” refers to the rustic, unfinished or unpolished appearance of the cap.)
Cutting open the fruitbody reveals beautiful lemon yellow flesh. There is a distinctive smell of iodoform (hospital disinfectant) at the base of the stem, which gives the fungus its English name.
Iodine Bolete, Hemileccinum impolitum. 30th September 2023.
Iodine Bolete is not a common fungus and there are only 15 records in Norfolk to the end of 2022. As it isn’t common, the First Nature website rightly recommends that this “edible although hardly delectable” fungus “should not be picked for the pot” and I would normally follow this advice. However, I’d already picked my specimen for identification so I decided to fry the remains in butter and thoroughly enjoyed both the taste and texture.
Flame Shield, Pluteus aurantiorugosus
Shield fungi (whose generic name Pluteus means “shield, protective fence or screen”) grow on decaying wood and come in a variety of colours.
The Deer Shield (Pluteus cervinus) has a brown cap, the Willow Shield (P. salicinus) has a grey cap and the cap of the Yellow Shield (P. chrysophlebius) is a bright greenish-yellow or golden yellow. But it’s hard to beat a Flame Shield, Pluteus aurantiorugosus, with its stunning flame orange cap. Underneath the cap, the gills start off white and become pink at maturity, and the spores are brownish-pink. The edges of the cap are usually yellowish-orange.
Flame Shield, Pluteus aurantiorugosus. 24th October 2023.
I wasn’t expecting to find a Flame Shield at ground level on a road verge but sharp-eyed Vanna spotted a glint of orange as we cycled past, and there it was. I’m used to seeing shields on substantial logs or dead tree branches but this one appeared to be growing on the soil. It must have been attached to a piece of rotting wood beneath the surface.
Up to the end of 2022 there were only eight records of Flame Shield in Norfolk but 2023 seems to have been a good year for them and I’ve seen the species three times since the end of September.
The Flame Shield is in the family Pluteaceae, as is the…
Stubble Rosegill, Volvopluteus gloiocephalus
Stubble Rosegills, Volvopluteus gloiocephalus, sometimes grow on stubble fields after harvest, feeding on the remains of the crop. They also grow on road verges and this is where I usually find them (note 4).
Last year we saw most of our Stubble Rosegills on one day in November, on a cycle ride to Suffolk. This year they were abundant in early October.
The Stubble Rosegill is a very distinctive fungus and in its prime it is a great beauty. Young specimens are white and soon become pale grey, ageing to the colour of milky coffee. The cap is sticky when moist but silkily tactile when dry. The gills are crowded, starting white and becoming pink.
A Stubble Rosegill’s stem is often hidden in grass but if you gently part the leaves there is a fleshy bag-like volva at the base of the stem, as in species of Amanita (such as Fly Agaric and Deathcap). Be careful when you move the grass leaves, though. The Stubble Rosegill looks robust but it’s actually rather flimsy and the grass may all that is keeping the fungus upright.
The Stubble Rosegill is quite a common fungus and there are 221 records from Norfolk up to the end of 2022.
Here is a sequence of the development of Stubble Rosegills, in pictures:
A young Stubble Rosegill, Volvopluteus gloiocephalus. Growing on straw, 8th October 2023.
A Stubble Rosegill in its prime, showing the volva at the base of the stem. 13th November 2022.
An older Stubble Rosegill, Volvopluteus gloiocephalus. 13th November 2022.
The “volvo” in the generic name Volvopluteus refers to the volva at the base of the stem (note 5). The specific name gloiocephalus comes from the Greek words gloio (glue) and cephalus (head), a reference to the stickiness of the cap when wet. Older books refer to the Stubble Rosegill as Volvariella gloiocephala.
I haven’t tried eating Stubble Rosegills and I don’t pick them because I can identify them in the field but apparently they are edible but not highly rated. There is the danger that, with their volva, an inexperienced forager could mistake them for a toxic Amanita (such as the white form of Deathcap or the Destroying Angel), with fatal consequences (note 6).
Trooping Funnel, Infundibulicybe geotropa
Yesterday was gloriously sunny and quite mild and I went for my first bike ride since late November. The cold weather of the previous week had marked the end of autumn and I didn’t expect to see any fungi, so a group of Trooping Funnels (Infundibulicybe geotropa) was a pleasant surprise.
The Trooping Funnel is one of the few large mushrooms that can endure mild frosts, so specimens can survive right through to late December.
Trooping Funnel, Infundibulicybe geotropa. 8th December 2023.
Trooping Funnels grow in deciduous and coniferous woodland, especially with Beech and oaks. Mine were in deciduous woodland by the side of the road, growing in a line, but they often form fairy rings, which can persist for many years. One in France measures half a mile across and is estimated to be 800 years old. They are stately fungi with strongly decurrent gills under a conical or bell-shaped cap.
Trooping through the woods – Trooping Funnels, Infundibulicybe geotropa. 8th December 2023.
An older name for Trooping Funnel was Clitocybe geotropa. Clitocybe means “sloping head” and geotropa means “turn towards the earth”, because the cap margin in young specimens turns downwards. Older caps are more flattened.
The new genus Infundibulicybe was created in 2003.
This is another fungus I haven’t eaten, but it is edible when young (note 7).
Notes
Note 1 – ‘Circellatus‘ means ‘”with circular zones”, referring to the rings on the cap.
The genus name, Lactarius, is derived from the Latin “lac“, meaning milk. The “milk” (also known as “latex”) is a fluid produced when the fungus is damaged and its function is probably to clog up the mouthparts of insects and other tiny animals that try to eat the milkcap. Anecdotal evidence supports this theory – I find that milkcaps’ close relatives the Brittlegills (Russula spp) have usually been nibbled by slugs, while milkcaps remain intact.
Taste is a useful tool in the identification of milkcaps. If you dab a bit of milk on your tongue, it can be mild or acrid (hot) or bitter. (The idea is not to actually eat the fungus – you spit out any residue and, if it is hot or bitter, can rinse out your mouth with water.) The milk’s colour is useful too, and whether it changes colour after several minutes – best seen when a spot of milk is dabbed on a paper tissue. Species also differ in their milk’s consistency (from watery to thick) and how abundantly it is produced.
For milkcap identification I use “British Milkcaps: Lactarius and Lactifluus” (2016) and “Mushrooms and Toadstools of Britain & Europe – Volume 1” (2017), both by Geoffrey Kibby. “The Genus Lactarius” by Jacob Heilman-Clausen, Annemieke Verbeken and Jan Vesterholt (1998) is also well worth a look.
Note 2 – As you’ll know from reading some of my other blog posts, such as the one on Rooting Bolete (August 2023), it is usually necessary to cut open a bolete to look at its internal colour and whether it changes colour on cutting. I do this on the spot for larger specimens but sometimes I take smaller specimens home, where I have time to observe any changes and the necessary reference books.
Note 3 – The Picture Mushroom website (and app) and Mycota of Alaska website say that Lactarius circellatus grows in moss under Mountain Hemlock (Tsuga mertensiana) and spruce (Picea). But in Britain, it is only found with Common Hornbeam.
Note 4 – The Stubble Rosegill is usually found on the remains of a grain crop but it will also grow on the leftovers of other food crops, such as cabbages.
Note 5 – In contrast the name of the car, “Volvo”, comes from Latin for “I roll”.)
Note 6 – I like this excerpt from an article about mushroom hunting on Vancouver Island in Canada:
‘“Is that one edible?” someone asks.
There’s an Eastern European quote, borrowed by author Terry Pratchett, that comes to mind: All mushrooms are edible; however, some are edible only once.’
Note 7 – In contrast the Ivory Funnel, also known appropriately as the Fool’s Funnel (Clitocybe rivulosa), is very toxic. It tends to grow in short turf on lawns.
