Farningham Wood

Gully with fallen trees.  Farningham Wood, 28 November 2013.

I walked through Farningham Wood recently and came across a depression, a sort of dry gully, full of fallen trees.  They had been there for a long while, perhaps since the storm of 1987, or perhaps they had fallen individually at various times, but none looked recent.  A strange place.

I was watching out for late fungi, but saw very few.  There were probably many more, but the fallen leaves will have covered some up, and also a single person always misses a lot compared to a group.  The only fungus photo I came back with was this:

Ascocoryne sarcoides, Purple Jellydisc.   Farningham Wood, 28 November 2013.

 I find it hard to resist taking a photo of this species, which looks like miniature intestines.  This growth was about three inches across. 

Broad Buckler Fern, Dryopteris dilatata.  Farningham Wood, 28 November 2013.

Not everything is brown.  You can see some leafage in the top photo.  And when there is less greenery, ferns stand out better, and there were a few of these Broad Buckler Ferns.  They are tripinnate; the individual fronds branch three times. 

At the top of a rise at the north end of the wood I saw a crudely made memorial seat.

Crude memorial seat.  Farningham Wood, 28 November 2013.

There were dedications on the oaks at either side, one of them quite old:

Dedication by crude memorial seat.  Farningham Wood, 28 November 2013.

The tree's bark has started to grow over the nail heads at the left of this one.  So, roughly made, but apparently well constructed, and I expect that many people will have rested here.  The slope up from the north is quite steep and there is plenty of undergrowth in other directions. 

Myathropa florea

Hoverfly, Myathropa florea, female, on Hogweed, Heracleum sphondylium, on the Orchid Bank
at High Elms Country Park, 14 July 2011.

I saw these attractive hoverflies several times last year, from April right through to October. Their bright golden fur makes them stand out, and the bat-shaped outline on the thorax, which you can see in the second photo, is distinctive.

Hoverfly, Myathropa florea, female.  Kelsey Park, 8 August 2011.

Hoverfly, Myathropa florea, male.  Farningham Wood,  2 October 2011.

Magpie Ink Cap

Magpie Ink Cap, Coprinus picaceus.
Farningham Wood, 2 October 2011.

Back on 2 October I was with the Orpington Field Club at Farningham Wood, looking for fungi. At the far side of the wood, power lines go overhead, and beneath them are piles of wood chippings, clearly the result of trees being felled to keep the lines clear.

Wood chippings are great places to look for fungi, especially if, like these, they are in a shady spot and get plenty of dew. These were still wet at mid-day in the middle of a heat-wave.

This was one of the fungi we found. They are all the same species, but the top specimen is still young, and the lower two photos show a mature one almost ready to drop.

They are very showy and distinctive, and from under their cap emerges a strong chemical smell, reminiscent of mothballs; not camphor, which is sometimes used in mothballs and smells medicinal but not unpleasant, but the other, harsh kind. And not the same, but in the same class of smells. I apologise for this vague description, but there is nothing else in everyday life that compares.

The name "Ink Cap" derives from the black fluid they release when ripe. The colour comes from their spores.

Magpie Ink Cap, Coprinus picaceus.  Farningham Wood, 2 October 2011.

Magpie Ink Cap, Coprinus picaceus.  Farningham Wood, 2 October 2011.

More Farningham Wood Fungi

Motorbike racing.  Farningham Wood, 2 October 2011.

This was the view from a high spot at the far side of Farningham Wood on 2 October, on the Orpington Field Club's fungus field trip. I showed some of the results of the trip a few days ago.

The bikes were very noisy. At first it was just a murmur, but as we walked on the sound gradually became a foreground roar.  I wouldn't have minded getting a bit closer to try for some dramatic photos, but reasonably enough the group headed away from them.

You can see that the soil there is pure sand. We, in the woods, were mostly on Blackheath Gravel, the same beds that my local commons are on (West Wickham Common, Hayes Common, Keston Common, Spring Park - all within walking distance; I feel well placed.) Despite the dry weather, there were quite a few fungi, and although many of them were dried up, old, or nibbled, they still make good photos.

First, the edge of a beefsteak fungus, a common wood-rotting bracket found on dead wood. It grows on my local oaks, but this one was on a chestnut tree. You can see the pores from which the spores fall when they are ripe.

Beefsteak fungus, Fistulina hepatica, on a chestnut tree.  Farningham Wood,  2 October 2011.

Slugs love to eat fungi, and this one has been comprehensively nibbled.

Leccinum aurantiacum.  Nibbled by slugs in a scalloped pattern.  Farningham Wood, 2 October 2011.

Ths next one is an old specimen and has mildew growing on it. It is also being explored by a beetle.

Cortinarius species, on Willow. Farningham Wood, 2 October 2011.

Now, two small and delicate growths. The first one is tiny. That is a fingernail next to it.

Mycena speirea next to a finger.  Farningham Wood, 2 October 2011.

Coprinopsis lagopus. Farningham Wood, 2 October 2011.

A small cup-shaped fungus.

Peziza species.  Farningham Wood, 2 October 2011.

Not all of the fungi had large fruiting bodies. This next is an oak leaf mildew, and you can just see the tiny black specks which are its equivalent of mushrooms.

Oak Powdery Mildew, Microsphaera alphitoides (or Erysiphe alphitoides).  Fruiting.  Farningham Wood, 2 October 2011.

The last fungus for today is an unidentifed species which was growing on the dead stem of a nettle. The mycologists were quite pleased to find this; apparently the stems supporting the cups are unusual.

Unidentified fungus on the dead stem of a nettle.  Farningham Wood, 2 October 2011.

The fungi that decompose tree-trunks are responsible for the blocky cracquelure in this example. This is normally all you see until they put out a fruiting body like the beefsteak bracket near the top of this page.

Decaying wood.  Farningham Wood, 2 October 2011.

Finally, on our way out of the wood we went along a field edge looking for a rare plant that grows locally, the Deptford Pink. We did find several of them by the hedge, but they were well past flowering, and these seed-heads were all that was left.

Seed heads of Deptford Pink, Dianthus armeria.  Farningham Wood, 2 October 2011.

Fungi in Farningham Wood

Orpington Field Club walking through Farningham Wood.  2 October 2011.

This was a fungus field trip with the Orpington Field Club. Farningham Wood is one of the many patches of ancient woodland south of London, and logically enough it is on ground that would not be very profitable for agriculture; mostly gravel and sand, and some clay.

This trip took place after a week of unseasonably hot and dry weather, which is bad news for a fungus hunt. It's one of the few occasions when you hope that there has been plenty of rain recently. So we found fewer fungi than hoped, and many of them were dried up and dead-looking. But it wasn't all bad news.

The woods are full of sweet chestnut trees, whose canopies give a lovely green-gold light in sunshine. But there is an excellent mixture of other trees. Aspens and willows near the seasonal ponds; oaks and hornbeams elsewhere. There has been a lot of coppicing in the past, and although we didn't see any freshly coppiced areas, there was a big pile of cut trunks, so there is clearly management activity.

I took lots of photos of fungi, and a few other things, so I will show some here and some in a later post. Here are some of two different kinds of puffballs, both quite small and nothing like the giant puffball which is normally quite common in the woods.

The first, Scleroderma citrinum, has a hard and scaly skin; in fact its name means "hard skin." You can see that it has been split apart, and the photo on the right shows a cross-section, with the black spores developing inside.

When they mature, puffballs develop a hole in the top. The spores dry out, and any blow on the skin produces a powdery puff.

The second puffball, Lycoperdon foetidum, shown below, has a very different skin, and seems to be covered with small spikes, though they are quite soft to the touch. This one was growing on a layer of wood chippings, either chestnut or oak, where we found a few interesting fungi.

The chippings were under a power line, and were obviously the result of keeping the lines clear of vegetation.

Puffball, Lycoperdon foetidum. Farningham Wood with the Orpington Field Club, 2 October 2011.

We found both False Death Caps and the real Death Caps. First, the false:

False Death Cap, Amanita citrina var. alba.  Farningham Wood with the Orpington Field Club, 2 October 2011.

This fungus is normally yellowish, but this is a white variety. You can see that, like the famous Fly Agaric (a close relative), the veil that it bursts through as it grows is left in patches across the dome at the top. It has a strong smell of raw potato. It isn't poisonous, but it isn't tasty either.

Death Cap, Amanita phalloides.  Farningham Wood with the Orpington Field Club, 2 October 2011.

This is the real thing, and this is enough to kill a child. There are very few cases of poisoning in the UK, but it does happen that people eat it, mistaking it (as our expert said) for "God knows what." It really doesn't look like anything you would want to eat if you knew even a little about fungi, but I'm not going to attempt to explain why because I don't want to mislead anyone with false confidence. Americans, you will find plenty of it on your continent too.

Like the False Death Cap, it has a distinctive odour, and it's quite a different one. But an odour of what? I picked up three different descriptions of the smell: scrambled eggs, old faded roses, and stale urine. Clearly there is something organic and aromatic there.

Finally for this page, one of the wood's invertebrates; a fairly common hoverfly, found near one of the seasonal ponds, none of which had standing water, though the bottoms of some were still muddy.

Hoverfly, Myathropa florea.  Farningham Wood with the Orpington Field Club, 2 October 2011.

The top photo was taken with my Ixus 100; all the others with my EOS 60D and 100mm macro lens with ring flash.